Welsh Government staff trio sacked for fraud or theft
THREE members of the Welsh Government’s staff have been dismissed following allegations of fraud or theft made against them over the last six years, it has been revealed.
A further member of staff was dismissed for negligence leading to loss, and then underperformance. The employee concerned had been suspended for seven months and 21 days.
In a letter to Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies, who had sought information about the dismissals and about investigations into potential conflicts of interest involving staff members, Permanent Secretary Shan Morgan said: “We do not keep a central register of every concern or complaint raised by members of staff about a potential conflict of interest involving another member of staff.
“This is a matter for discussion between the individual and their line manager in the first instance and matters are usually resolved at that level.
“Our records show that nine concerns including a potential conflict of interest have been brought to the attention of the internal whistleblowing panel during this period.
“Where a lone manager or the whistleblowing panel feels that a concern or complaint merits further investigation, the matter is referred to the central Case Advisory Team (CAT).
“The CAT has undertaken three such investigations, two of which were determined to be unfounded and the other resulting in a member of staff resigning.”
Darren Millar, the Welsh Conservative AM for Clwyd West, said: “Some of the reasons for these staff suspensions are alarming, particularly those relating to security breaches and fraud/ theft.
“In the interests of transparency, the Permanent Secretary should disclose further details of the alleged incidences of fraud and theft, including the scale of any potential loss to the taxpayer, and also share information on security breaches, especially where third party information may have been inappropriately divulged or lost.
“While the Welsh Labour Government has a duty to ensure that civil servants behave responsibly, and that poor performance and potential criminal behaviour is addressed swiftly, they also have an obligation to be fair to taxpayers and prevent matters from being swept under the carpet solely for the purpose of avoiding political embarrassment.”
A Welsh Government spokesman said: “We take matters of fraud and security breaches very seriously. These isolated cases were dealt with in line with our security and propriety policies.
“The policies are necessarily tight, and aim to capture all actions that could have a wider consequence for our overall security or the public’s confidence in our ability to run our business properly. Under the Data Protection Act, we are not able to provide any further detail on specific cases.”