Clwyd West MS Darren Millar has called on the Welsh Health Minister to “expose the rot” at the top of the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board by publishing a report which found “systematic cultural failings in the finance team and leadership" in the organisation.
Darren made the plea during this week’s Welsh Conservative Debate in the Senedd.
Darren tabled a motion calling for the damning Ernst and Young (EY) report, leaked last month, to be published,
The Welsh Health Minister has so far refused to publish the document, which has been in the possession of the Welsh Government for four and half months, saying it is up to the Health Board which "is awaiting legal advice on whether or not they can release the report".
Speaking in the debate, Darren said:
“We need some transparency. We need to be able to see this information out there. I've read the report. A copy was shared with me, as it was with other Members, on an anonymous basis, and it is scandalous: false accounting, fraud, what appears to amount to misconduct in public office being committed. All of these, of course, could be criminal matters and that is why it's absolutely appropriate that the police are carefully considering whether to take a prosecution forward.”
Darren expressed dismay that nobody has yet been dismissed as a result of such a condemning report.
He said:
“There are many individuals named in the report, who still appear to be at their desks in the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, doing the day job, on significant salaries, who knew what they were doing in covering up information, deliberately bending the rules or breaking the rules, in order that they could have their way.
“Now, you've had this report, and so has the health board, for four and a half months. I don't know how long it takes to organise a dismissal of people and to hold them to account, but it shouldn't be taking four and a half months, frankly, given the information in this report, which seems to be pretty black and white as to what was going on.
“There are appendices to the report, which I haven't seen, which are copies of e-mails and other details, which I also believe need to be in the public domain. And if they are, I think, frankly, Minister, people in north Wales will be cheering you on for being a champion for them in exposing the rot at the top of this organisation, so that we can weed it out, have a good clear up, and get decent people in charge who have the right culture, who are honest, and want to deliver the change that we so desperately need to see in our health service in north Wales.”
The motion calling for the EY report to be published failed to pass in the Welsh Parliament due to a tied vote in which all Labour MSs voted against the proposal.
