Conduct Of Lord Crickhowell

EDM number 110 in 1992-93, proposed by Alan Williams on 20/05/1992.

That this House notes that the Public Accounts Committee Report on Financial Management and Control in the National Rivers Authority, whose Chairman is Lord Crickhowell, exposes 'serious weaknesses... resulting in wasted expenditure of some ú1 million' on a project costing ú2.65 million; denounces repeated failure by the authority to 'observe the care required for the expenditure of public funds'; notes the report's concern at 'the attendant risks of fraud and corruption' and that the Public Accounts Committee were 'not convinced' that this project was 'a one-off example of poor management and inadequate control'; deplores the fact that as a result of the incompetence in this quango the Department of the Environment's rules have been broken, the authority's rules have been broken and Treasury rules have been broken; recalls the words of Public Accounts Committee member Mr Michael Latham, a Conservative, who said 'I have sat on this Committee since 1983 and I think this is one of the worst examples of public accountability that I have ever heard'; notes that when Mr Latham asked if the Chairman of the National Rivers Authority, Lord Crickhowell had 'thought it appropriate to consider his position' Sir Terence Heiser replied that 'I am sure he has... and obviously has concluded that in all the circumstances it is not necessary for him to take any further action'; and believes that if the Chairman will not take the appropriate action then the Secretary of State for the Environment should, and should sack him.

This motion has been signed by a total of 23 MPs.