Tesco land deal documents available for public inspection

Rhondda Cynon Taf had information on its website minutes of previous meetings but when the Labour party got back into power they wiped them off the site I wonder why?
Was it corruption? make your own mind up.
Never mind vote Labour you know it makes sense

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199495/cmhansrd/1995-10-23/De...
Many subjects have been touched upon in the debate, and, I fear, many subjects will not be raised.

I should like to deal specifically with what the right hon. Member for Swansea, West (Mr. Williams) euphemistically referred to as the "Celtic problem". I shall confine myself to the 29th report, which deals with the Welsh Development Agency.

Despite the fact that the Welsh Development Agency alleges that the Grant Thornton report was independent, it was neither independent nor impartial. Its terms of reference were tightly drawn, and it was instructed and funded by the Welsh Development Agency, so I do not accept for a moment that an arm's-length investigation has been made into the matter.

I shall not repeat the facts of the case, which were more than adequately placed before the House earlier this afternoon by the hon. Member for Swansea, West. The Grant Thornton report has been described by one eminent Queen's counsel, Mr. Vernon Pugh QC, as "selective" in what it decided to investigate. That is a damning condemnation of the report and its terms of reference.

That things were not right during that period in the Cynon valley goes without need for emphasis. At that time, the Welsh Development Agency had two directors, who were also directors of Tesco and who profited royally from the whole deal. That cannot be right. Even if it was not illegal, it calls into question the veracity of the matter.

To deny, as has been denied by the agency and the council, that a formal partnership existed between Cynon Valley borough council, the Welsh Development Agency and the county council is plain folly. It is misleading, and an outright untruth. The association, which I would call a syndicate--a partnership for one specific purpose--which is to deal with the land in question, was formed in April 1991, so any denials are unfounded.

The Public Accounts Committee's report into the matter has been heavily critical, and rightly so. In paragraph 74, it says: "We note that the Grant Thornton Report found no evidence of improper pecuniary gain or collusion but . . . that the Agency had been over-zealous and had left itself open to allegations of undue influence. We note that disciplinary action has been taken . . . and . . . trust that the . . . revised procedures will prevent" such actions "in the future."

Column 756
Given that two members of the WDA board were also members of Tesco plc, the words "over-zealous" and "undue influence" are not strong enough.
The Department agreed that the agency's handling of the matter was unacceptable. It drew attention to the code of practice, which sets out the principles to be applied in such circumstances, including integrity, objectivity, accountability and openness.
What happened in Cynon valley was justifiably open to criticism. The leading counsel, Vernon Pugh QC, said that the activities constituted a joint venture or syndicate, and that the moneys expended by the local authorities were ultra vires, and could now validly be claimed back, because no sanction had been obtained under the relevant legislation from the Welsh Office. I therefore suggest that other matters need to be examined, perhaps in another forum, in the coming months.

The Welsh Office was firmly of the view that the disposal of the land was badly handled. I should have thought, therefore, that some form of in-depth and arm's-length inquiry would have been set up by the Welsh Office. Although the Welsh Office has accepted in several parts of the report that things were wrong, it evidently intends to do nothing about it. In the interests of open and fair government, via the quango system or whatever, this matter deserves a full, independent, arm's-length tribunal of some form, with a broad remit to investigate the whole matter from beginning to end, and to make positive and real recommendations in due course.

I echo what previous hon. Members have said: that the Welsh Development Agency has not been the flavour of the month with the PAC, and rightly so. Matters have improved of late, and we are now looking back some two or three years to this set of incidents. Despite a considerable improvement in the running of the WDA, this incident is serious and calls for a full, powerful, arm's-length inquiry into the matter.

The Welsh Development Agency has caused the Committee a great deal of concern and has been the subject of lengthy discussion. Our 29th report on the WDA for 1994–95 is not as serious as some of our earlier ones on it—it has an exceptionally serious history. We note that Mr. Michael Scholar, from the Treasury, is now permanent secretary at the Welsh Office, and we look forward to his putting the Department into somewhat better order than it used to be in.
We were concerned about the acquisition and sale of a site in Aberdare to Tesco plc. We were concerned that, in a number of key areas, the WDA did not know what was going on when it should have done. The PAC's particular concern involved the sale of the Gadlys road site to Tesco plc. The agency received a late and unsolicited offer from Tesco and it did not notify that fact to other interested parties. We questioned whether it was wise that two directors of Tesco should have been directors of the agency with responsibility for deciding on matters such as the disposal of the Gadlys road site. We were deeply concerned that that action was not fair to the other offerers and that the agency appeared to have given preferential treatment to Tesco. The PAC noted: We consider that the assessment by the Welsh Office that the disposal of the … site was badly handled severely under-estimates the serious matter of probity in the public sector. We considered that the disposal had been handled in a totally unacceptable manner. I hope that we will not hear any more about the WDA and its failure to carry out its responsibility for the proper conduct of public money.
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1995/oct/23/public-accounts

The public’s right to know

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/south-wales-news/cynon-valley/2008/0...

Once again though, in line with this country's policy of protecting the criminals, no heads ever rolled for the corruption that went on in this case. Certain councillors at the time benefitted substantially from what would now be called "insider dealing". I still see one or two of them around too.

They never spent time at Her Majesty's pleasure for the crime either. Neither did those in the WDA who were complicit in the double dealing. The message of course went out that Britain is a safe haven for the criminal fraternity. Nothing's changed since then despite all the cliches we hear about, "we'll learn from all this" or "we acted in good faith," and all the other nonsense the guilty and the powerful spout when they're caught redhanded.

These are the same people who would have us believe that they are fine upstanding members of the community, paragons of virtue and whiter than white. The truth is far from the public personna they try to project. Despicable hypocrites to the last, all of them, and fine examples to the rest of the community they purport to serve. The only ones they ever served were themselves.

The irony of it all in the end was that people still voted for them! Can you believe the stupidity and ignorance of those who put them back into power?