Welsh Assembly
It has been revealed that the Welsh Assembly Government spent £5 million on car hire over a 5 year period. The assembly had a contract with Europcar U.K for the 5 years in question which made cars available for government staff.
The information was uncovered by Kirsty Williams, the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats. Ms. Williams first approached Rhodri Morgan, the First Minister for Wales, for answers regarding expenditure on car hire but after he was unable to give a satisfactory answer, she turned to the Freedom of Information Act as a means by which to obtain the information.
The vehicles are needed by government staff and civil service employees who are required to attend meeting all over Wales. They regularly meet with companies and organisations all over the country and car hire is a necessity and vital to their job.
The leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats replied to this argument by saying “Of course, I understand that civil servants need to travel across Wales to attend meetings but £1 million a year is an extortionate amount of money to spend on this.”
Kirsty Williams went on to suggest that the use of video conferencing be utilised in order to cut down on the amount of travelling these employees undertake. She went one step further and added that the government should invest in a “pool of low carbon energy efficient cars to reduce the amount they spend on civil servant travel and play their part in lowering CO2 emissions in Wales.”
