Welsh Conservatives claimed that the Welsh Labour Government still has questions to answer and lessons to learn over the Awema scandal.

It comes after Dr Rita Austin gave evidence to the National Assembly's Public Accounts Committee today.

Paul Davies AM, Shadow Minister for Finance, said, "This evidence session still leaves considerable unanswered questions for Welsh Labour Ministers about how they spectacularly failed to oversee the spending of public money.

"Dr Austin's evidence raises serious questions about government checks and balances, which should have been in place to prevent such financial mismanagement and abuse.

"Labour Ministers closing ranks and refusing to speak out on the lessons they need to learn only serves to fuel speculation of a Labour attempt to gloss over such a fiasco.

"Numerous Ministers were involved in the funding of Awema, but an endemic lazy attitude to dishing out cash failed to protect hard-pressed taxpayers from Welsh Government waste.

"It's time the First Minister said sorry for this scandal and gave a cast iron guarantee that measures will be taken to ensure it never happens again."