Fighting the bureaucracy

Interesting article in this morning's Western Mail about the problems facing those interested in getting projects off the ground with the help of European Convergence funding. They say that ambitious projects aimed at boosting the economy in Wales’ poorest communities are being held back by Assembly Government bureaucracy. Some project ideas first mooted more than 18 months ago have still not been approved by the Welsh European Funding Office causing immense frustration to those involved:

Wefo’s website, www.wefo.wales.gov.uk, contains a list of project ideas submitted by a variety of organisations. In some cases, ideas dating back to the first half of 2007 are still being evaluated.

One would-be project manager, who did not wish to be named, said: “The whole process is taking much longer than we expected. You fill in a form providing all the answers, and then you get a further set of questions. This goes on and on, and is immensely frustrating.

“The whole point is to create new jobs to raise the prosperity of the region, yet there seems to be no sense of urgency on the part of Wefo to make sure the evaluation is completed and a decision made.

“The Convergence programme has a finite timescale and the worry is that the longer the evaluation takes, the greater the chance that the project will have to be shortened.

“We have spoken to quite a few other projects, and we know they are as frustrated as we are. Ultimately it’s the people of Wales and the Welsh economy that are being let down by the failure to make decisions.”

Projects are also responsible for finding “match funding”, and some managers are worried that the failure to get the green light

Clearly there is a problem in getting money out to where it will do some good. That is not new. WEFO has always seemed to be an obstacle and has caused much frustration amongst all those who have had dealings with them. This though is our last chance. Once this convergence funding is spent it is likely that there will not be anymore.

We need to get it right but we also need to be seen to be creating jobs and moving the economy forward. If that is a priority for the One Wales government as well then they need to start doing something about this bureaucracy.