The committee was damning in its condemnation of NRW following contracts it had agreed on timber sales. They highlighted the auditor general's findings that the contracts were novel, repercussive and contentious and reinforced views that uncertainty existed around whether Natural Resources Wales complied with principles of public law and state-aid rules. 

What makes these findings worse is that the lessons were not learnt, because 18 months later the Public Accounts Committee repeated its criticism. They found that there were a number of concerning issues around the awarding of these timber contracts that were unexplained, leading the committee to conclude there had been a cultural failure within the organisation in relation to governance and that a serious overhaul is needed. 

Minister, have you picked up the Titanic thing yet? Like a range of other public bodies and public projects in Wales, there was not enough oversight and accountability, no commitment to using the taxpayer's pound wisely and seeking value for money, and a complete inability to learn from failure. The mistakes kept going on and on.

Similar findings were highlighted when PAC investigated the Supporting People programme. It found that the pace of progress in addressing issues raised by previous reviews, for example, with regard to the funding formula and the monitoring of the impact of the programme, had been slow. There were also ongoing inconsistencies in the management of the programme at a local level. Minister, this was a programme that had been in place for 14 years, and, in 14 years, your programme could not get its act together. How long should it take? 

Nor did the Public Accounts Committee hold back on its scrutiny of the NHS Wales Informatics Service. Let me give you another direct quote:

'Our inquiry has raised serious question marks about the competence, capability and capacity across the health system to deliver a digital transformation in Welsh healthcare. And yet we discovered a culture of self-censorship and denial amongst those charged with taking the agenda forward'.

To be frank, that's no surprise. I've seen this culture of self-censorship and denial up close every month for the past decade or more. 

Other committees make the same points on portfolio-specific inquiries, including many on health, ranging from care homes to GP clusters, education and community spends. Minister, these are not partisan reports written by unfriendly think tanks or opposition politicians, but the findings of Welsh Parliament scrutiny committees with cross-party representation, often following reports by the auditor general.

I say to the people of Wales: do not despair, there is a lifeboat in sight. Because a Welsh Conservative Government would ensure that, from day one, it was accountable and transparent. We will immediately put in place the office of Government resilience and efficiency, which would be separate to the Government and have a cross-portfolio responsibility to ensure that policy and spending decisions follow the overall objectives of the Government and dovetail with each other. After all, we saw the disaster of the Welsh Labour Government's climate change policy. It was in direct contradiction with the M4 relief road debacle. It took £157 million before Labour figured that one out. 

OGRE will change that culture of self-censorship and denial. We will not be afraid to challenge and change. It is why we need a devolution revolution. OGRE will not just scrutinise expenditure, but it will scrutinise and ensure there is cohesion in all our policies, whether it's climate change and sustainability, human rights, raising educational standards, protecting the vulnerable and poor, food security, delivering properly funded social care, or protecting the NHS.

We, the Welsh Conservatives, will remember we're here to serve the citizens of Wales. We will spend the taxpayer's pound wisely. We will cut out the unnecessary layers of bureaucracy and ensure we deliver a more streamlined and transparent Government. Welsh Conservative policies have clear objectives, clear outcomes and rigorous management, where policies are given every chance to succeed, but evaluated and stopped if they are not working. No more taxpayers' pounds going into an endless abyss. 

Let me finish by making it clear that the last point of our motion is an exercise in hope over experience. We hope Labour will step up and stop the waste, but the reality is that, after 20-odd years and well over £1 billion of taxpayers' money wasted in just the last decade, I don't think Welsh Labour Government are capable of driving a culture change, of delivering value for money, of challenging decision making. We will call for it, but I'm not holding my breath. But, Minister, you should. The Titanic's going down.