Letter: Does Welsh Assembly need a Sydney office?

Letter: Most of us are aware that the Welsh Assembly Government has been breeding staff like rabbits. Do people know it has also been breeding offices?

Through a freedom of information request I found out it has 72 offices in Wales alone - 16 in Cardiff.

There are offices in Brussels, New York, Sydney, Beijing and Shanghai, Honk Kong, Mumbai and Bangalore, Tokyo, Dubai, Munich, Milan, and two in London.

Why does the Assembly need them?

My FOI answer showed the running costs just in annual outgoings expenditure for financial year 2009 to May 2010 of rent, rates, service charges, utilities, office cleaning and maintaining of these offices is a bare minimum of £16,859,439 - this does not include staffing costs.

But I found in my FOI request we have the chief executive and clerk to the Assembly on £122,401 to £133,515 salary range, chief operating officer £95,407 to £117,423 and two directors on the same rate of pay.

On top of this there are 40 executive band employees on £44,000 to £66,800 and 52 management band on between £34,000 to £42,000. There are no less than another nine people on £54,500 to £80,000.

Also revealed were a further 200 people who work for the Assembly on rates below £30,000 and it should be remembered that the extra other costs just to employ each of the 300 employees is about 30 per cent for pension, benefits, National Insurance etc.

Readers can find the full details at www.whatdothey know.com

The worst thing Wales ever did was vote for the bloated, overpaid, useless, drain on our finances.

Kenny Thain

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