Does Labour's Hegemony damage the public sector in Wales.

You can't help wondering just what is the purpose of some of the Quangos set up  by the Welsh Government are there for?

The Welsh Government is dropping its controversial anti-poverty initiative Communities First, it has been confirmed.

Communities and Children Secretary Carl Sargeant has announced that instead a “cross government approach” to boosting prosperity across Wales will be pursued.

Wales online 

More than £300m has been spent on Communities First since it was launched in 2001 to help people in the most disadvantaged areas of Wales. But its performance has been inconsistent, and questions have been raised about its effectiveness.

Last year an evaluation report said: 

“While Communities First has retained its ethos of encouraging community involvement in the design, delivery and monitoring of the programme, genuine community participation is not always being achieved or is not being facilitated in a way that is of benefit to the implementation of the programme.”

 The scheme’s credibility took a knock in October 2011 when Miriam Beard, the co-ordinator of Plas Madoc Communities First Partnership in Wrexham, was jailed for 32 months after defrauding the body of more than £53,000. Beard’s family members benefited by tens of thousands of pounds from payments made by the partnership.

Now we  have  the news that a Welsh government-owned investment company has defended a decision to compete for business as part of England's Northern Powerhouse.

FW Capital, a subsidiary of Finance Wales, wants to manage part of a £400m fund for firms in the north of England.

But FW Capital said any profit it makes in England would help cover Finance Wales's overheads back in Wales.

The firm has had a team of fund managers operating from offices in the north west and north east of England since 2010.

Are these operatives from Wales or are they locally based ? 

Plaid AM Adam Price said it was "perplexing to say the least that this practice [of work outside Wales] is continuing", following a Welsh Government review in 2013.

"The whole purpose of creating this lever, this additional bit of institutional fire power, is to give Welsh businesses a competitive advantage,

"If you're doing the same on the other side of the border you're potentially negating your work in Wales."

A 2013 review by business expert Prof Dylan Jones-Evans questioned whether Finance Wales was doing enough to help the Welsh economy, and recommended the creation of a development bank.

Finance Wales chief executive Giles Thorley said the group's priority "is and will always be supporting businesses in Wales".

He said FW Capital was run

 "on a profitable basis by local fund managers" and "brings valuable management fees to the Finance Wales Group making a sizeable contribution to central overheads in Wales".

"We're looking forward to working with Welsh Government on the plans to become a Development Bank for Wales," he said.
"Our focus remains on helping businesses in Wales to grow and succeed,"

But surely   investing  (or gambling) on projects outside of Wales is negating the whole ethos of Finanve Wales.

Or am Ibeing really dence

All to often it appears that the quangos and agencies set up by government (both UK and Welsh) are there to to serve those  operating and working for them .

I don't think I and Royston Jones (AKA Jac O' the North) would agree on the approach to Independence we should take,  but her does deserve credit for his exposure of the dark side of some of those Quangos, Agencies and other Organisations  which are supposed  to serve the Welsh Public but seem to mainly to serve the interest of those employed by them .

Much of this is unfortunately partly due to almost a century of Labour Hegemony  in Wales where there is a Job for the Boys (and Girls) attitude .

It used to be said that the quickest  route for an ambitious teacher to becoming a Headteacher was to join the  Labour Party.


Can it be that those wishing for a comfortable  job in the public sector look at a similar route?