4. Topical Questions

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:26 pm on 18 July 2018.

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Photo of Mr Simon Thomas Mr Simon Thomas Plaid Cymru 3:26, 18 July 2018

I don't think I can add any more other than to say that I completely agree with what's been said by Lee Waters and Nick Ramsay. I said yesterday that I thought the governance of Natural Resources Wales was rotten and I had no faith in it: I repeat that just to get it on the record with you. I have no faith in the governance of this organisation at the moment. You know, making one mistake and a mistake carrying on for a second year you can kind of understand—it was a big mistake, mind you; heads should have rolled about that one—but then to do this on a number of contracts shows there's something fundamentally wrong.

Now, Lee Waters did mention corruption. I don't know whether that's true, but I've written to you with an evidenced case from a constituent of mine of how he believes a contract was constructed in such a way as to ensure that one contractor could win it, with Natural Resources Wales then paying extra on top of the contract because it had been done in the wrong way—so, the equipment was being bought separately, whereas my constituent had bid for it with the equipment as part of the contract—in other words, jobs for boys, or doing things for people that you know. I'd like you to reopen that correspondence that we've had because you, I have to be honest, gave me a brush-off and said my constituent should take it through the Natural Resources Wales complaints procedures. Well, of course he had—of course he had—and he's now taken it to the ombudsman and he's taken it to the BBC as well. But this is something seriously wrong, and these things don't happen through incompetence. You do it once or twice through incompetence. This is something that's much more fundamental. So, I want to push you even further than what you've just said. Really, can the chair continue? And, secondly, will you send in your own officials to examine these contracts, top to bottom, and make sure that every single one of them is not being done with any gifts and favours involved in them?