, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Maximising EU Funding - Evidence Session with Welsh Government
Okay. Thank you for that. I did understand that, but it's good to have it spelt out. So, in regard then to my next question, whether WEFO or the Welsh Government have made or intend to make any significant changes to the eligibility checks to speed up the…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Maximising EU Funding - Evidence Session with Welsh Government
Which is my capacity question.
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Maximising EU Funding - Evidence Session with Welsh Government
If I can interject, if it's okay, for clarity and for my understanding and, I presume, for that of others as well, when people are applying, or organisations or businesses are applying or whatever they are, a critical element of that is their acceptance that…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Maximising EU Funding - Evidence Session with Welsh Government
Yes, okay. In terms of eligibility checks—let me get my teeth in—and the robustness and the rigour involved with that, what practical steps, then, have WEFO and Welsh Government taken to work with projects and beneficiaries around good record-keeping, really…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Maximising EU Funding - Evidence Session with Welsh Government
I can continue. That's fine.
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Maximising EU Funding - Evidence Session with Welsh Government
Okay. Thank you, Chair. I think that's my questions done. I'm thinking that you'll be taking question 5, Chair, is that correct, as Adam's not here?
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Maximising EU Funding - Evidence Session with Welsh Government
So, how many of those, then, have been extended or are planning to be extended? You talked about 92 per cent versus the 3 per cent, so what's the actual detail around that?
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Maximising EU Funding - Evidence Session with Welsh Government
And that's the additional difficulty, isn't it?
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Maximising EU Funding - Evidence Session with Welsh Government
I'm going to move on, then, to the rural development programme, if I may. So, this is a monitoring question in terms of socioeconomic projects. Obviously, these have been hugely beneficial to Wales in the past. So, are they being delivered as expected within…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Maximising EU Funding - Evidence Session with Welsh Government
Can you write to us with that?
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Maximising EU Funding - Evidence Session with Welsh Government
In regard to structural funds programming, those projects within that, how many of them have passed their due-to-end date?
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Maximising EU Funding - Evidence Session with Welsh Government
Thank you. Hugh, I'm conscious that you haven't said anything to me on these matters, but in regard to the number of active projects that have passed their due end date within the structural funds programme, how many of these are there? Can you articulate…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Maximising EU Funding - Evidence Session with Welsh Government
Yes, I see them in my constituency.
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Maximising EU Funding - Evidence Session with Welsh Government
Can I make an interjection, Chair, if I may? It's slightly concerning that they are the big projects, but logically they would be in terms of supply chain issues around Brexit and then inflation and all the rest of it. How worrying is that? If they were…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Maximising EU Funding - Evidence Session with Welsh Government
Thank you. This is respectively to you both, WEFO and Welsh Government: which of the projects that are still in situ or left to complete do you have the most concerns over in terms of their completion?
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Maximising EU Funding - Evidence Session with Welsh Government
If I can just drill down into that, sorry. Would you say, then, that you are maximising each project with that individual attention as far as you can?
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Maximising EU Funding - Evidence Session with Welsh Government
If I can just interject on that point, Chair—bearing in mind this evolving picture, because we are where we are, and it is where it is; I accept that—have you got the capacity to deal with that, or is it something that you've chosen to do to make it work?
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Maximising EU Funding - Evidence Session with Welsh Government
Thank you very much, Chair. It's in regard to working with projects and beneficiaries around timeliness of delivery—obviously, we're coming to the tail end of programming—and whether you as Welsh Government or WEFO have made any notable changes to…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Maximising EU Funding - Evidence Session with Welsh Government
Thank you. That's all very clear, and I can understand the approach that you're taking, or having to take, with that. Is there not a danger that—? We are in very volatile times, aren't we, so we've gone from a period of COVID into a period of financial…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Maximising EU Funding - Evidence Session with Welsh Government
Thank you, Chair.
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Maximising EU Funding - Evidence Session with Welsh Government
I do get that. It's the devil if you do and it's the devil if you don't. It's just my question really is: how have you assessed that risk? But I presume it's an ongoing, iterative process as you've described, and we'd be bashing the hell out of you'd not…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Maximising EU Funding - Evidence Session with Welsh Government
Thank you, Chair. Apologies if I'm straying into future questioning. I totally understand the logic of that overcommitment, but, on your comment on straying into domestic budgets, how have you assessed that risk in these times of critical financial deficits…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Papers to note
I just feel that we are becoming judge and jury. We should be looking at processes and have they been followed. We are not the determiner of any grant application form. That's why we have our professional officers who are doing that. Granted, if there's been…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Papers to note
We'll agree to disagree, Chair. Thank you.
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Papers to note
I have had a concern around this from the beginning. I'm not talking about the actual acquisition or the process and mechanisms that were followed by the Welsh Government, which seem to be, from everything we know, ordinary and normal, whether or not we agree…
