Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 4. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 1:04 pm on 1 July 2020.

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Photo of Nick Ramsay Nick Ramsay Conservative 1:04, 1 July 2020

Diolch. I'm clearly going to have a lot more questions for you after next Wednesday's economic statement—that's quite clear. Minister, finally from me today, and with my other hat on as Public Accounts Committee Chair, you'd expect me to ask you about the auditor general report that grants worth £53 million to boost the rural economy were made by the Welsh Government without officials ensuring sufficient checks to ensure value for money. Now, this is obviously something that Public Accounts Committee will be looking at in its own time, but I do think the initial indications that the Welsh Government couldn't show that they'd considered whether there was a successful outcome to the spending of the £25 million of grants in particular is concerning. What confidence can the public have and how can you preliminarily reassure the public that the programmes that I've mentioned and which we've discussed today, such as the economic resilience fund, projects to get the economy back on track, will themselves involve effective evaluation and monitoring of public money, so that at the moment, when money is tight, we can see the best outcome from every Welsh pound that is spent and the taxpayer will see value for money in terms of developing that newer, greener economy, meeting those challenges ahead that are so important for moving the Welsh economy forward?