COMMENTING on the Auditor General's report published today on funding for the Wales Millennium Centre, Shadow Culture Minister Paul Davies AM said:"This is a damning report that highlights in no uncertain terms the failings of the Assembly Government.

"It is one thing to monitor a multi-million pound project well while it is being built, but that must continue into the next phase of the project.

"The report clearly states the Assembly Government did carry out detailed reviews of the WMCs business plans – plans which highlighted several key risks.

"But crucially, it then stopped short of assessing and addressing these problems. "This beggars belief.

"We then see that shortly before the Centre opened, independent advisers reported again to the Assembly Government that there was a 'high risk' the WMC would not break even.

"Once again the Minister was given a chance to act, but once again he didn't and no clear monitoring plan focussing on the risks was developed.

"Reading the report, it looks as though Labour effectively washed their hands of the WMC as soon as the construction was successfully completed – almost as though they just lost interest.

"This vindicates everything we were saying in November.

"We actually have proof now that the Assembly Government did not keep sufficient information on the WMC and therefore it couldn't understand what was happening regarding the Centre's finances.

"If Labour had monitored the business plans properly then millions of pounds of tax-payers money could have been saved.

"To read that there were 'fundamental weaknesses' in the 'high risk, complex' WMC project is worrying.

"But then to see that the Labour Government had the opportunity to address the risks before it was too late but didn't, is astonishing.

"The Assembly Government have now got some very difficult questions to answer."