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RPA DEBACLE AND CONTINUED LACK OF TRANSPARENCY REMAIN OBSTACLES TO REBUILDING TRUST, SAYS CLA (31st October) Continued lack of transparency, combined with the significant financial knock-on effects of late and incomplete farm payments, remain obstacles to rebuilding trust with the Rural Payments Agency (RPA), says the Country Land and Business Association (CLA). Continued lack of transparency, combined with the significant financial knock-on effects of late and incomplete farm payments, remain obstacles to rebuilding trust with the Rural Payments Agency (RPA), says the Country Land and Business Association (CLA). In response to evidence given by Lord Whitty and Lord Bach to the RPA sub-committee this week, CLA Chief Economist, Allan Buckwell, said: "The continued lack of transparency surrounding the internal operations at the RPA and the woeful mishandling of farm payments remains an obstacle to rebuilding the trust that stakeholders, farmers and landowners, have lost. "Our main concern now is to understand what changes have been made to IT systems and processing management to give any confidence that we will not see a repeat of the debacle next spring. "In particular, Lord Whitty finally admitted to the EFRA committee that the main failure was the mapping. We want to know why it will take until spring 2008 to correct this failure. "The evidence given confirms what we had suspected; that Ministers relied on the over-optimistic reports of their staff, and ignored the abundant advice and evidence the industry provided that the mapping system was incapable of doing the job required of it. "Defra and the RPA have suffered huge reputational damage with their customers. Their reputation will now only be rebuilt by a much more open and transparent approach working with the industry," concluded Allan Buckwell. - ends -
For more information please contact: For interviews with Allan Buckwell, please call the CLA press office - Tel. 020 7235 0511
Issued by Julie Mate, Marketing Manager, CLA West Midlands, Knightley, Woodseaves, Staffordshire ST20 0JW. Tel. 01785 284722 Mob. 07790 365577 Email. julie.mate@cla.org.uk
Email recipients: If you wish to amend your details, or be removed from our contact's list, please reply to julie.mate@cla.org.uk No responsibility for loss occasioned to any person acting or refraining from action in reliance on or as a result of the material included in or omitted from this publication can be or is accepted by the author(s), the CLA or its officers or trustees or employees or any other persons. © Country Land & Business Association 2003. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, or stored in any retrieval system of any nature without prior written permission of the copyright holder except as expressly permitted.
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