Betsi Cadwaladr: Health minister forced to correct Senedd comments

The Welsh health minister has been forced to correct her comments about a damning report about Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board's finances.

Eluned Morgan told the Senedd last week that forensic accountants EY were asked to look at the body's accounts "on advice from the Welsh government".

But two former senior officials of the NHS body told BBC Wales that the government was not involved.

Ms Morgan has now admitted there was no "direct conversation" on the matter.

Betsi Cadwaladr's former chair, Mark Polin, had called Ms Morgan's original comments "misleading and inaccurate".

EY's report said the health board wrongly accounted for millions of pounds, and that finance officials deliberately made incorrect entries into their own accounts.

The study has been seen by BBC Wales, but is not in the public domain, and there is pressure on ministers from opposition politicians to publish it in full.

The EY investigation began in September 2022 after the regulatory body Audit Wales found what it called "significant errors" with the health board's 2021-22 accounts.

Plaid Cymru health spokesperson Rhun ap Iorwerth wrote to Ms Morgan asking for clarification and any documentation that could shed light on the situation.

He said that transparency on all matters relating to Betsi Cadwaladr "is essential if people are to trust the government's efforts to sort out health services in the north".

Mr Polin and Richard Micklewright were among the 11 independent members of the health board who were forced to resign from the board by Ms Morgan in February.

Speaking in the Senedd last week Eluned Morgan said that "the audit committee of the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, on advice from the Welsh government, commissioned Ernst & Young [EY] to undertake a forensic review of accounting management, after Audit Wales qualified the health board's accounts for 2021-22 and identified internal control failures".

But Mr Micklewright, former vice chair of the Betsi Cadwaladr Audit Committee, said his committee "exercised its own professional judgement" in commissioning the Ernst & Young report.

"Contrary to the minister's statement in the Senedd, the Welsh government was not involved in the decision in any way nor was its input sought."

Mr Polin, a former chief constable of North Wales police, said that EY "was certainly not commissioned on advice of the Welsh government".

He told BBC Wales that when the audit committee raised concerns with him about financial irregularities at the board, he sought advice from the Welsh government's interim director general for health and social services, Judith Paget.

According to Mr Polin, she told him to get clarification from the board's chief executive, Jo Whitehead.

He said this "did not address their concerns".

"At no point did she advise me or the audit committee chair to commission EY.

"The chair of the audit committee, with my agreement, commissioned EY."

In the Senedd on Wednesday afternoon, North Wales Conservative MS Darren Millar asked the health minister to explain herself "in order to get to the truth".

Ms Morgan said NHS Wales boss Judith Paget "spoke directly to the then chief executive of Betsi, Jo Whitehead, following the Audit Wales report which found allegations of financial misstatements, and recommended that the health board should undertake a full investigation to understand how the misstatements had occurred".

"The Welsh government did not commission the report, and I've never suggested that the Welsh government commissioned the report.

"But it is probably fair to say that there was not a direct conversation, to my knowledge, between the Welsh government and the Audit committee of the Betsi board, but there was a conversation, as I have noted, which took place between the CEO [chief executive] of the NHS in Wales and the CEO of Betsi, and I'm happy to correct the record on that score."

Speaking later to BBC Wales, Rhun ap Iorwerth said the minister's initial comments "didn't ring true - and now we know it wasn't".

"Welsh government did not advise Betsi's audit committee to commission this report - the independent members in that committee did so because they could see there was something wrong," he said.

"These are the independent members that were later effectively sacked. In correcting the record today, the minister again highlights what an injustice that was.

"Transparency is crucial, especially so when talking about Betsi Cadwaladr, and whilst I'm glad the minister agreed to set the record straight, faith in that transparency has been undermined again here."