6. Debate on the Public Accounts Committee Report: Natural Resources Wales's Annual Report and Accounts 2017-18

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:43 pm on 13 February 2019.

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Photo of Adam Price Adam Price Plaid Cymru 4:43, 13 February 2019

Well, this report by the committee and, indeed, the subsequent Grant Thornton report and the previous reports by the Wales Audit Office certainly have laid bare a—how can we say—systemic collapse, really, of ordinary rules of governance and audit, and leadership, I think, more generally, and there are issues of capacity as well, as Llyr Gruffydd has said. But I think they've also pointed out a sector that is in deep crisis. I think some of the roots of that crisis do lay, I think, in a failed—or, has been, based on the evidence—a failed merger hitherto. And I would take issue with the question of whether the lack of subject matter expertise present on the board is irrelevant here, because it would be unthinkable, for example, under the days of the Forestry Commission, or indeed in the Forestry Commission in England and Scotland now, for there not to be forestry commissioners that knew something about forestry. Yes, you have other skills there, but you certainly would always have had people that had deep knowledge in the field. And then the issues of conflict of interest are addressed in that case, as they are in every other sector or case. [Interruption.] Yes.