Betsi Cadwaladr: Unpublished NHS report 'alleges cosy deals'

A report on north Wales' health board alleges "cosy" deals with companies worth millions, Wales' opposition leader has said.

Andrew RT Davies is the second senior figure in the Senedd to say he has seen a yet-to-be published study on accounts at Betsi Cadwaladr.

The senior Conservative said the report was "damning" of how the organisation awarded contracts.

First Minister Mark Drakeford said the report should not be in circulation.

Last week outgoing Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price read out what he said were the findings of a report by accountancy EY, claiming the investigation found accounts were "deliberately falsified".

Mr Price said it was alleged millions were "posted wrongly" to avoid losing them by the end of the financial year.

EY was commissioned to review the organisation's finances after the Audit Wales watchdog discovered that £122m was allegedly not accounted for.

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A fraud inquiry was held into the matter as a result of the EY report. The inquiry was dropped in April.

BBC Wales was told last year that none of the issues being investigated involved anyone making personal gain.

The health board has promised an "internal review" of the matter, while the EY report is yet to be publicly released.

Speaking in the Welsh Parliament, Welsh Conservative Senedd leader Andrew RT Davies said the EY study had been sent to him.

He said it had some "damning assessments of the function that the health board undertook in awarding contracts".

Mr Davies claimed it "clearly identifies executive overreach and management decisions that were taken, based on information that was withheld from the board".

Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor is among the hospitals in the Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board area

Mr Davies added that the report "crystallises the wrong information that the board was given, how documentation was readjusted and dates altered, and how ultimately major contracts were awarded to companies... running into millions of pounds... based on cosy deals".

Labour's Mr Drakeford told Mr Davies that he did not "go looking for reports that have not been made available to me" and that the report was meant to be "confidentially held".

"The report ought not to be in circulation in the way that the leader of the opposition described," he said.

He said he was "sure, because of the assurances I have had, that the board are taking the report seriously".

Mr Drakeford said: "There are people whose careers are at stake here. Whatever you think, those people have rights that have to be respected."

The first minister accused the Welsh Conservative of not realising "that quoting to me a report that he has received, through means that are not legitimate, is not the way in which business can ever properly be conducted".