The Chairman Of The National Rivers Authority

EDM number 586 in 1991-92, proposed by Alan Williams on 30/01/1992.

That this House notes that few reports by the Comptroller and Auditor General have found incompetence and contempt for established financial procedures to match that surrounding the National River Authority's handling of its move to Bristol; is alarmed that over ú1 million of tax payers' money could have been saved if the project had been properly managed and controlled; notes that despite the requirements of the Financial Memorandum no appraisal of the costs and benefits of the project, nor the ú1.65 million increase in cost, was presented for approval to the Board or to the Department of the Environment; is disgusted that there had been a 'serious failure to apply essential procedures, expertise, resources and planning' to the project, especially when the Chairman is an ex-Cabinet Minister who never lost an opportunity to castigate local authority expenditure and to lecture about the need for sound financial discipline in others; notes that under statute and Government accounting the Authority's Board as well as the Accounting Officer bear principal responsibility for the effective financial management of the Authority, including compliance with the Financial Memorandum and other procedures to secure value for money; notes that the Accounting Officer has left the Authority at a further cost of over ú125,000 to the public purse; and calls upon the Secretary of State for the Environment to dismiss the Chairman and reconstruct the Board.

This motion has been signed by a total of 27 MPs.