Roger Lewis: Questions over Cadw job for ex-WRU boss in bullying row
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Roger Lewis is a former chief executive of the Welsh Rugby Union
Questions have been raised about why a former rugby boss got a Welsh government job after he stepped away from Museum Wales over a bullying row.
A minister appointed Roger Lewis to lead a review of Cadw after he recused himself as president in late 2022.
Officials asked the minister to agree to the move at the same time she was asked to help fund a settlement for an official who complained about Mr Lewis.
Welsh government said a report found he had not breached the terms of his job.
The statement referred to an investigation which, according to a report from the Auditor General, Adrian Crompton, last week, said his behaviour "had not always reached the highest standards".
Plaid Cymru called for Wales' top civil servant to review the appointment by arts minister Dawn Bowden.
Roger Lewis, who was also asked for comment, previously said an investigation had not found that he had breached the Nolan Principles of Public Life.
After a career as a senior figure in broadcasting, Mr Lewis was chief executive of the Welsh Rugby Union between 2006 and 2015, and later chairman of Cardiff Airport.
He was appointed by the Welsh government to Museum Wales in 2019.
Mr Lewis recused himself from his role as president on 17 November 2022 as part of a settlement severely criticised by Mr Crompton, and which cost taxpayers more than £600,000.
He left the job on 31 December, three months earlier than scheduled.
On 14 December, weeks after Mr Lewis recused himself, it was announced that Mr Lewis was appointed to chair a task and finish group looking at how heritage body Cadw is governed.
In his report Mr Crompton had significant doubt that payments worth £325,698 made to the former director general David Anderson - effectively its chief executive - by Museum Wales complied with charity law.
The Welsh government also paid £30,000 towards the pay off, and £20,500 towards mediation costs. Ms Bowden, in ministerial advice discussing the settlement, had at the same time also been asked by officials to appoint Mr Lewis to the review.
The advice did not tell her the full value of the settlement.
Mr Lewis' group was due to complete its work last month but is yet to publish its final report.
The auditor general said last week that Museum Wales, also known as Amgueddfa Cymru, had not been able to demonstrate it had acted in the best interests of the charity, or that the settlement represents value for money.
According to the auditor general's report, Mr Anderson and another official had made complaints about Roger Lewis, alleging bullying and discriminatory treatment. Mr Anderson had also made claims to an employment tribunal.
The Welsh government held its own investigation into the allegations, which reported in November 2021.
While it did not find that Mr Lewis had clearly breached the terms of his appointment, the audit report said it found his behaviour "had not always reached the highest standards and that his actions had left him open to accusations that he had not always been as objective and open as he could have been".
A further independent investigation, conducted in February 2023, did not find that the former president breached the Nolan principles for public offices, but did uphold "some aspect" of complaints "in part or in full".
'Perplexed'
Plaid Cymru MS Mabon ap Gwynfor told BBC Wales that the appointment of Mr Lewis to the task and finish group was "at best negligent and at worst indefensible".
He added: "Knowing that the independent inspector's report deemed that the individual's behaviour had 'not always reached the highest standard' while at Amgueddfa Cymru, and having known of the circumstances in which he recused himself at great expense to the museum, why did the deputy minister for culture bring him back onto the Welsh government books?
"The Welsh government must now instruct the permanent secretary to conduct a review into this case."
The permanent secretary, Andrew Goodall, is Wales' most senior civil servant who oversees the day-to-day running of the Welsh government.
The Welsh Conservatives', Tom Giffard MS, said he was "perplexed" by the government's decision making.
He said: "Welsh taxpayers will be rightly shocked by the huge sum being forked out at their expense following the museum's row with Roger Lewis.
"It is clear that at least some of the complaints against him have been upheld, which is deeply troubling."
A Welsh government spokesperson said: "The independent investigator's report found that Mr Lewis had not breached the terms of his appointment at the museum or any of the Nolan Principles of Public Life."
In a statement last week Mr Lewis said: "I am reassured to note that the auditor general, in his report, stated twice that during my tenure of office as president of Amgueddfa Cymru that I had not breached any of the Nolan Principles, the "Seven Principles of Public Life", and the auditor named them: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty, and leadership."
Tribunal 'could have cost more'
Top officials from Museum Wales told a Senedd committee on Thursday that the former director general, David Anderson, could have won some of his claims against the museum at an employment tribunal.
The museum has previously accused the auditor general of not presenting a "fair representation of the events that occurred" in his report that was scathing of the settlement.
Justifying the pay-out, the charity's chief executive said it was feared the costs could have been double or more had it got to a tribunal.
Chief executive Jane Richardson told the committee: "Because of the nature of the claims made, the legal advice was very strong to the amgueddfa [museum], that the public purse could bear a much, much higher cost if we were to pursue through the tribunal route.
"And therefore, although the settlement is a significant amount of money, it was better value for the public purse to follow that settlement route."
Later, Rhiannon Passmore, Labour MS for Islwyn, asked if the cost to the public purse could have doubled at a tribunal.
Ms Richardson suggested it could have exceeded that. "More," she replied.
Later former Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price asked if legal advice to the museum had said if Mr Anderson had any chance of succeeding in his claims.
"There were elements I understand whether there was a chance of success," Ms Richardson replied.
The chair of the museum, Kate Eden, said the charity's trustees denied breaching charity law.
Neither official was at Museum Wales when the settlement was agreed.
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- Published24 February 2015
