Audit Committee publishes report on Wales Millennium Centre project.

The National Assembly for Wales’s Audit Committee publishes its report on the Funding for the Wales Millennium Centre (WMC) today (Wednesday).   On the basis of a report prepared by the Auditor General for Wales (Auditor General for Wales (AGW) report, Funding for the Wales Millennium Centre, October 2008), the Committee examined whether the project’s main public sector funders – the Assembly Government and the Arts Council of Wales (ACW) – had effectively managed the risks involved in funding the WMC.  

The report’s two main findings are:

• The main funders managed the risks involved in funding the construction phase well, although there are still some lessons to be learnt;

• In general, the funders were insufficiently alert to the risks involved in the operational phase, and the Assembly Government’s monitoring of the WMC once it opened was wholly inadequate.

Chair of the Audit Committee David Melding AM said: “The WMC is an iconic building in Wales which was always going to be a high risk project.  Despite the clear risks, neither the ACW nor the Assembly Government put in place a coherent plan for monitoring the WMC’s operations.  It was only when the WMC reached a financial crisis in October 2006 that the Assembly Government began to develop a sufficient grip of the WMC’s financial position.  It is important that arrangements are now put in place to ensure that this situation doesn’t arise again.”

The Report concludes by recommending that:

1. The Assembly Government and Arts Council report on how they intend to respond to each of the recommendations in the Auditor General’s report;

2. In future, when Assembly Members are being asked to vote on funding for major projects, Members should be provided with a complete assessment of the funding and the financial risks;

3. The Assembly Government should reconsider whether the Arts Council should take over responsibility for funding, and hence monitoring, the WMC;

4. The Assembly Government should commission its internal audit service to report on the quality of monitoring arrangements in place for the WMC and whether they are operating as intended.

Copies of the report are available from : Audit Committee

Notes to editors:

1. The Wales Millennium Centre (WMC) houses seven resident organisations, including Welsh National Opera.  Since opening in November 2004, the WMC has attracted audiences of over 1 million, plus a further 3 million casual visitors.  The £109 million that the WMC cost to construct was largely funded by the public sector (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Capital funding for the Wales Millennium Centre

* £106.2 million as approved by the Assembly Government, plus around £3 million for additional cultural activities, the opening gala and other project costs

Source: Auditor General for Wales