Management Of The Welsh Development Agency

EDM number 1621 in 1992-93, proposed by Rhodri Morgan on 16/03/1993.

That this House expresses its deep concern at yet another example of mismanagement and cronyism at senior levels of the Welsh Development Agency, in response to the precipitate departure on Thursday 11th March of Mrs Linda Gilbody-Wood, the ú39,000 a year director of the Agency's Skills Development Unit at Treforest, for reasons relating to material inaccuracies in the professional qualifications in personnel management claimed in her curriculum vitae at the time of appointment in June 1991, thereby providing an uncanny reminder of the recent conviction of Neil Smith, the $40,000 Marketing Director of the Agency, for fraud and deception in obtaining his job by claiming all manner of academic and professional qualifications he did not have, also appointed in mid-1991, and also without the approval of the Personnel Department of the Agency; calls on the Secretary of State for Wales and the Chairman of the Welsh Development Agency to accept full responsibility for this shambolic state of affairs; urges the Agency neither to appoint nor to favour for appointment anyone on the recommendations of the Chairman, Dr Gwyn Jones; and calls on the Agency urgently to verify the qualifications claimed by all of those appointed since he became Chairman in October 1988 and to overhaul thoroughly its procedures for recruitment.

This motion has been signed by a total of 30 MPs.