WEDNESDAY’S (Jul 27) routine meeting of the County Council’s Corporate Governance Committee, called to approve last year’s accounts, moved beyond the humdrum when Councillor Mike Stoddart raised questions about an item showing that £182,000 will need to be repaid to the Heritage Lottery Fund because of irregularities in a grant scheme in Pembroke Dock. 

‘THINGS HAVE NOT GONE RIGHT’ 

The Meeting began with Chief Financial Officer, Jon Haswell, outlining the annual returns of the past year. He stated: “The council still does not have a commitment to future school funding.” He also briefly discussed the effects of Brexit on the Welsh economy, outlining that: “Whilst Brexit may pose a risk—it may also be an opportunity.”

Chairing the Committee, Councillor Ken Rowlands said: “It’s good to hear this is a positive report – we are leading the way for others to follow.”

However, Ian Westley, Chief Executive, had a different view of the Council’s financial returns and told the meeting: “There is an acknowledgement that things haven’t gone quite right.”

Head of Finance, Jon Haswell, raised issues relating to Cleddau Bridge, informing the meeting that problems have still not been resolved relating to toll funding.

Mr Haswell told members of the Committee he anticipates that in the next financial year, the Council will move forward with plans to improve the existing toll structure, stating: “Things haven’t been corrected where they might have been in the past.”

Councillor Bob Kilmister expressed concerns that the council had opted to bank an extra £3.6m in school reserves and also questioned why Council funding had been reduced, with a shortfall of £137M within the coming year.

Cllr Kilmister asked: “I’d really like someone to explain how things have gone so wrong.”

MORE GRANT TO BE RETURNED 

Raising the question of the funding clawback, Councillor Stoddart suggested that not everything was as Councillor Hall made out, and pointed members to a short paragraph at the foot of page 99 of the accounts which informed members: ‘A review of the Pembroke and Pembroke Dock Townscape Heritage Initiative (PDHLI) grant scheme by the Heritage Lottery Fund has identified the potential for grant claw back of up to £182,000 due to ineligible expenditure having been included in the claim’.

He asked for more details and Jon Haswell explained that this was the grant money that was currently the subject of a police investigation and that the Council was taking steps to recover irregular payments from the developer.

However, Mike Stoddart, who has spent the past three years uncovering flaws in the authority’s administration of various grant schemes, disputed this.

After he pointed out that the recovery of money referred to by Mr Haswell concerned the Commercial Property Grant Scheme funded by the Wales European Funding Office (WEFO) and the PDHLI funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund was an entirely separate issue, Mr Haswell conceded that he had been wrong to suggest that they were in any way connected.

Cllr Stoddart suggested that the confusion had arisen because the irregular payments (over £180,000 in each case) were similar.

“This means that my efforts have saved the taxpayer a total of £360,000 ,” he claimed.

He also had some harsh words for the Wales Audit Office (WAO), which he accused of sitting on its hands as the grant fiasco has unfolded.

Cllr Stoddart told the Committee that, more than a year ago, he had spent half a day at WAO’s base at Penllergaer explaining to officers how these grant irregularities arose, but nothing had been done.

He accused the WAO of being happy to turn a blind eye to this sort of thing because they consider £180,000 to be ‘petty cash’ and ‘beneath their dignity’.

TIME TO GET A GRIP 

Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Stoddart told The Herald: “It is time the council got a grip of this grant business. Following the complete failure to properly administer the CPGS scheme in Pembroke Dock, we now have the Heritage Lottery Fund seeking to claw back £182,000 from THI in the same town.

“It is ironic that this THI scheme was controlled by a committee chaired by Cllr Brian Hall, who was so keen to tell members how wonderful things were. And, only last week, I identified apparent flaws in the administration of a Property Developments Fund grant for an office block in Johnston.

This is public money, in one form or another, and the council has a duty to see that it is handled with the utmost probity,” he said.