Welsh Development Agency
Welsh Development Agency (WDA;
History
The WDA was established under the Welsh Development Agency Act 1975 under the then Secretary of State for Wales John Morris MP for Aberavon. The WDA had four objectives:[1]
- furthering the economic development of Wales
- promoting industrial efficiency and international competitiveness
- creating and safeguarding employment
- improving the environmenthaving regard to existing amenity.
The organisation worked to secure
Employing several hundred workers, the WDA was argued to be one of Wales's most important institutions
Success
After some governance issues were brought to light in the early 1990s (see "Controversy" below), the Government appointed
The Agency regained its spot as a lead inward investment and job creation agency in the late 1990s in the UK. It was credited with having brought in, secured and safeguarded investment with major companies such as
With
The WDA contributed to the building of the Millennium Stadium and the walk way for the 1999 Rugby World Cup and the Millennium Centre. It assisted in the establishment of the National Botanic Garden for Wales and the Llanelli Coastal Path. It removed contaminated land and reclaimed and removed coal tips in South Wales through the world leader in the field, Gwyn Griffiths OBE. Success included partnerships with newly created 22 local authorities in the mid 1990s on urban regeneration and Town Improvement Grants. It worked in the EU with an Office in Brussels namely the Wales European Centre ensuring it gained European funding with the Welsh Office.
It led the successful bid with
Other public bodies, including the Development Board for Rural Wales, the Land Authority for Wales, Technical Enterprise Councils and the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation, were merged into WDA by the Government of Wales Act 1998.
Merger
The WDA ceased to exist on 1 April 2006, when it and two other ASPBs - the
The Swansea AM Andrew Davies made the decision to abolish the WDA in conjunction with the First Minister of Wales Rhodri Morgan.
Controversy
In the early 1990s the WDA attracted controversy when its chairman, Gwyn Jones, a businessman, was appointed by the then
- giving out illegal redundancy payments totalling £1.4m between 1989 and 1992;
- paying £228,000 to ensure non disclosure from former executive, Mike Price, whom it sacked following internal conflict in 1991;[2]
- allowing free private motoring for board members between 1984 and 1992;
- allowing chairman, Dr Gwyn Jones, to obtain a £16,895 WDA rural development grant for one purpose, but when he used it for another without informing the Agency as required, he was not asked to pay it back when a WDA inspector detected the change;[2]
- flying directors on Concorde;[5] and
- using public money to investigate a management buyout that would have privatised the agency. A sum of £308,000 was discovered in the 1988-1989 accounts to pay for a feasibility study to this end.[2]
The Commons Public Accounts committee became concerned when the Auditor General, Sir John Bourn, discovered many irregularities during his annual examination of the Agency's accounts.
Criticism also followed the appointments of Neil Carignan and Neil Smith by Gwyn Jones. Carignan's employment was terminated over his poor performance, but he was allowed to take £53,000 of office equipment with him. Smith was hired as a marketing director, but the WDA failed to check his CV, which was fraudulent, and that he was a discharged bankrupt. Smith was later investigated by police over his hiring of models for claimed promotional work, and he was later convicted of theft and deception and went to prison.[2]
The WDA was abolished in difficult circumstances in a statement at the National Assembly which took Assembly Members by surprise. The Agency had appointed Graham Hawker as CEO who was in the middle of a reorganisation at the time reversing the regional offices created in 1995 to centralised offices without consultation with the Minister. Hawker resigned in controversial circumstances after the abolition announcement without informing the Minister Andrew Davies AM and the Chair Sir Roger Jones at an Economic Development Committee of the Assembly chaired by Alun Cairns then AM now an MP for the Vale Of Glamorgan, this was unprecedented. Hawker was the CEO of Welsh Water PLC prior to his controversial appointment as the WDA CEO . Welsh Water PLC had to be rescued by the new Dwr Cymru mutual led by Lord Byrnes.
Welsh Affairs Committee scrutiny
In February 2011, a report of the House of Commons Welsh Affairs Committee[6] argues that the abolition of the Welsh Development Agency has reduced Wales's visibility in the global marketplace. The committee claims that, five years on, the WDA remains one of the most recognisable Welsh brands and argues that the establishment of a successor trade promotion agency should be a priority for the Welsh Government. The report also argues for greater engagement by the Welsh Government with parliament on the issue.
The Committee's report received a mixed response in the Senedd. Conservative AMs tabled a motion endorsing one contributor's statement (Professor Brian Morgan) that "the closure of the WDA and the abolition of the ‘WDA brand’ will probably go down in history as the worst policy decision made in Wales in living memory". In response, Business Minister Edwina Hart accused those holding such views as "wanting to revisit the past".[7]
A highly critical report of Inward Investment attraction was also published by Cardiff Business School in 2012. The report "Selling Wales"[8] was an assessment of the agencies involved and argued that the lack of a consistent brand was one of the most significant problems.
References
- ISBN 978-0-7083-1953-6
- ^ a b c d e "How clean was my valley?". The Independent. 28 August 1994. Retrieved 25 February 2012.
- ^ "Annual Report 2003-04" (PDF). The Welsh Development Agency. 10 March 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 March 2005. Retrieved 25 February 2012.
- ^ Jones, Gareth (1 April 2006). "Questions over quango replacement". BBC News.
- ^ a b "Quangowatch: No 5: The Welsh Development Agency". The Independent. 13 March 1994. Retrieved 23 February 2012.
- ^ "Welsh Affairs Committee - Inward Investment in Wales Report". Parliament. 21 February 2012. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
- ^ "Business Minister Hart accuses supporters of WDA's return of wanting to 'revisit the past'". WalesOnline. 1 March 2012. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
- ^ "Cardiff Business School" (PDF).