(Title Image: Wales Online)
Shadow Finance Minister, Nick Ramsay MS (Con, Monmouth), raised the “unprecedented” recent qualifying of the Welsh Government’s annual accounts for 2019-20 by Audit Wales. It boils down to pandemic business support finance being omitted and leading to a reported underspend when there would have otherwise been an overspend (explained in more detail by the Senedd Research Service).
Despite the good intentions behind it, for the Welsh Government’s accounting reputation, there needs to be some sort of agreement with Audit Wales so it doesn’t happen again. Was there a risk that next year’s accounts will be qualified too when that extra money is counted?
Finance Minister, Rebecca Evans (Lab, Gower), described it as a “technical disagreement” over how funding should be counted given the extraordinary events this year. All four UK governments were likely to be in the same position and she had no regrets about making that additional support available. Her understanding was that “a line has been drawn under this episode” and it won’t happen next year.
Rhun ap Iorwerth MS (Plaid, Ynys Môn) criticised the inadequate fiscal powers at the Welsh Government’s disposal compared to an independent nation. There needed to be more options to increase revenue and capital finance to deal with the pandemic and the recovery.
He raised the potential of green bonds – which the UK Government recently announced would be issued next year to encourage investment in measures to deal with the climate emergency.
The Minister reminded the chamber that tax-varying powers were still in their infancy. Some of those tools have been used, including £30million for homelessness arising from land transaction tax.
Bonds would count towards Welsh Government borrowing which is capped. Bonds are also a more expensive form of borrowing – though she wasn’t opposed to greater fiscal flexibility in principle.
