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Rural Payments Agency is told to apologise to farmers
THE beleaguered Rural Payments Agency (RPA) is facing fresh criticism after an official watchdog told it to apologise to farmers and compensate them for its bungled handling of payments.
Parliamentary Ombudsman Ann Abraham accepted complaints from two farmers – one from North Yorkshire – that they had been left out of pocket and stressed because the agency paid subsidies late and failed to resolve errors.
She condemned the refusal of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' (Defra) to accept her conclusion and to pay 9,000 to the pair, saying they were left with "cold comfort" from the Government.
Her findings come as MPs publish yet another scathing report on the performance of the RPA, which is responsible for overseeing the 1.6bn-a-year Single Payment Scheme for farmers.
The Public Accounts Committee accused it of paying "negligible attention" to taxpayers' interests and "poor leadership".
It criticises the 11,000 performance bonus paid to RPA chief executive Tony Cooper and says Defra must shoulder much of the blame.
Shadow Environment Secretary Nick Herbert said: "Here is another report laying bare the chronic problems besetting the Rural Payments Agency and singling out Defra for blame.
"Vast sums of taxpayers' money have been wasted on excessive administration costs and fines to the EU.
"There has been an abject failure of leadership and oversight. Yet typically, Ministers who should be held accountable for this dismal state of affairs still refuse to accept their responsibility."
Ms Abraham examined the cases of two farmers – representative of another 22 complaints she received – and concluded they suffered injustice as a result of the RPA's maladministration.
The unnamed North Yorkshire farmer, whose case was referred by Richmond MP William Hague, complained he had to sell animals early, work longer hours because he could not afford repairs to machinery and incur costs from paying bills late, interest on loans and from pursuing his complaint after delays in his 40,000 subsidy.
Ms Abraham said the RPA mishandled his application and misdirected him about when he was likely to be paid after he received vital documents 10 months late, and after the deadline for paying most of the money. She also found in favour of an East Anglia farmer who had repeated difficulty in resolving errors on the digitised maps of his farm.
But, despite insisting both should be compensated – 3,500 and 5,500 respectively – Defra has refused to comply.
It agreed to send apologies but a spokesman said the department "remains of the view that there is no basis for making further payments related to estimated financial losses" other than compensating lost interest.
Ms Abraham said: "It saddens me that a public body refuses to provide relatively modest financial remedy for substantive injustice to people whose complaints have been referred to the Ombudsman by MPs and which the Ombudsman has upheld following an independent investigation."
Her report is the latest condemnation of the handling of the farm payments scheme.
Delays to payments in 2005 have already cost the Government 75m in fines and it is facing up to a further 205m in penalties for other blunders.
Public Accounts Committee chairman Edward Leigh condemned the "public administration debacle" and blamed Defra for "consistently failing to spot continuing problems"
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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