Audit Office report into LG (Kirsty Williams AM )

Cymraeg
English

Kirsty Williams AM <info@kirstywilliams.org.uk>

Audit Office report into LG

March 13, 2007 11:00 AM

Welsh Liberal Democrat Enterprise, Innovation and Networks spokesperson, Kirsty Williams, has welcomed the report by the Wales Audit Office into the public investment given to electronics company LG.

A £247 million aid package was offered to the company in 1996, mostly from the Welsh Development Agency and the Welsh Office, in the hope of creating over 6,000 jobs. Only 2,200 jobs were ever created, with Newport plant ceasing operations altogether in 2003.

Ms Williams said: "Only 54 per cent of the aid provided was ever recovered from the company; the real LG legacy was broken promises and disappointment. Given the other things that this huge amount of taxpayers money could have been spent on, it is vital that lessons are learnt so that such a colossal mistake cannot happen again.

"This report from the Wales Audit Office offers some clear recommendations to improve the management of state aid provision, and as such is very much welcome. I would expect the Assembly Government to take this advice on board as a matter of urgency, to ensure that the limited resources available to us in Wales are utilised to their best advantage."

Notes:

· Protecting public money in the LG Projects, Newport was published today by the Wales Audit Office. It considers whether the Welsh Office, the Welsh Development Agency, Gwent Training and Enterprise Council and Newport County Borough Council adequately protected their investment in the projects after the developments were announced in 1996 and whether the final settlements with the companies when the projects subsequently collapsed were a good deal for the taxpayer.

· The report concludes that the aid package was risky, with the amount of assistance offered so early in the project resulting in a difficulty recouping the money when the jobs did not materialise. There were no specific targets put in place to judge progress, and a lack of monitoring of European guidelines was evident in the fact that it took four years to realise that the state aid limit was being exceeded by a considerable amount.