The Welsh government has been criticized for “failing to live up to its rhetoric” and “bluntness” about what the proposed budget means for the people of Wales.

In December 2022, this was announced by the Welsh Government Minister for Finance, Rebecca Evans. budget proposal for Wales for the fiscal year beginning April 1, 2023. It was described at the time as “unlike any other since devolution” as spiraling inflation eroded the real value of departmental budgets, energy price costs increased across the board and the need for social protection to protect the most disadvantaged from the cost. -life crisis.

However, despite the extenuating circumstances, the Welsh Parliament’s finance committee reviewed the budget and in a report accused the Welsh government of not being candid with the Welsh public about decision-making or where decisions are taken in society.

Read more: Life or death in pain: Wales victims NHS waiting list scandal

Writing in the report, committee chairman Plaid MS Peredur Owen Griffiths said that while it was “difficult to dispute the Welsh government’s claim that this is one of the toughest budgets it has ever produced”, it did not mean that the Welsh government was hooked. , and that does not mean that the proposals in this budget proposal cannot be improved”.

He added: “This report points to areas where the Welsh government is not living up to its rhetoric and where tangible improvements can be made. As a Committee, our efforts focused on three main areas: the lack of clarity and openness about decisions taken by the Welsh Government; the need to increase the cost of living for those most in need; and additional measures needed to protect public services”.

A recurring theme of the report is that the Welsh government is unsure about “exactly where the spending ax will fall”.

NHS and Wales Health

One member of the government named in the report is Welsh Health Secretary Eluned Morgan. The report noted that it had organized Welsh NHS organizations to focus on six priority areas for dealing with pressure, saying: “While these priorities are laudable, there is a danger that they will become meaningless unless the Welsh government also can make it clear which areas the NHS needs to de-prioritise to focus resources elsewhere”, adding that a witness told the committee that “when everything is a priority, nothing is a priority”. You can read WalesOnline’s special investigation into NHS waiting lists here.

The committee also pointed to an apparent disconnect between the allocation of funds in the proposed budget and how the funds will reduce pressure on the NHS.

The committee also said it was “deeply concerned” by the Nuffield Trust’s findings that “the NHS in Wales is less effective or less focused on providing timely care and that average hospital stays in Wales are significantly longer than in England”. “The Welsh Government can and must do more to analyze the effectiveness of spending in this area to drive improvements that reduce long-term pressures.”

Where does the ax fall?

The report also notes comments by Secretary of Education Rebecca Evans that this budget is “one of the toughest we’ve ever done” and that funding will need to change within existing plans to “refocus it on areas where it can have the most impact”. . with “difficult decisions” during the budget process.

The committee accused the Welsh government of not understanding where the cuts would go, saying: “We believe the Welsh government needs to be more direct about how it presents its decisions in the draft budget”.

Not only did this committee consider the budget. Both the Committee on Economy, Trade and Rural Affairs and the Committee on Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure were also concerned about the Welsh government’s lack of transparency.

The Economic Affairs Committee report said that while the Welsh government had said there was less money on the table, there was no indication of the reduced number of companies they could support.

The Climate Change Committee faced delays in receiving information from the Welsh Government, which negatively affected its ability to revise the proposed budget. For several years, the Committee and its predecessor have expressed concern about the ability of Natural Resources Wales (NRW) to carry out its functions effectively due to a lack of funding and capacity.

The Welsh government admitted that there was a funding gap for NRW but did not indicate how it intended to address the issue, prompting the committee to ask them to explain how and when the funding gap would be addressed.

Peredur Owen Griffiths, chairman of the finance committee, said: “We understand that the funding decisions facing the Welsh Government are extremely complex, but we were surprised and concerned by the lack of candor in the proposed budget. This is not the right way to deal with our Committee and the Senate in general, and it undermines legitimate democratic scrutiny.

“The lack of detail in the draft budget – compounded by inflation and poor communication between the Welsh and UK governments – is concerning and it was surprising to learn that the Chancellor of the Exchequer failed to correctly assess the change in tax rates, suggesting it was never a serious consideration.”

Source: Wales Online