“Isn't this what happens in all walks of life today?
Caught doing wrong you get a slap(not too hard now) on the wrist and told not to do it again.
Either the ruling body has little power or No guts to do what is right and just-Sack him.”

“no longer give to Charties there is far to much duplication betwen charties waste and a complete lack of control as to how money is accounted for and spent plus we have most spending money on the street pest Chuggers.

The government need to take a long hard lok at the charity industry it is in need of radical review”

“All the signs of corruption are apparent with this *charity*. Isn't it time the police paid a visit?”

“There is a major problem with how public funds are managed be it a charity or benefits.

I like this comment from the WAG "She added: "At the end of the day, if an organisation that we give a grant to decided to commit a fraud like any other organisation, it is very difficult either for the regulator or for the Welsh government to detect that."


Complex frauds may be difficult to detect but these were not complex frauds and should have been picked up easilly by the charities accounts department and the auditors as well as the WAG


Almost every WAG charity & Quango seems to get involved with fraud. We have had elWA & Communties first and many others. It all points to very lax or non existant control

Some of the organisation when fraud has been detected get statments made such as no proper accounts and no proper management

The WAG cannot just keep washing their hands of it, We have even had serious problems at the Welsh Audit Office with fraud going on their

The WAG seem incapable of properly oversing this organisations. AWEMA get alnmost £10M of public money and there seems little output from this organisation which appears to be doing nothing useful but costs the tax payers a lot of money

A major review of how charities are run and funded is long overdue. There are far to many charities and far to little control of them. The entire charity industry needs restructuring to reduce costs, make them more efficient and to make them accountable as to how they spend there money. A ban on them spending public & donated money on politicalproganda and activities would be a good start”

“I'm not surprised in the least when it's come to light that the new Chair has also allegedly received an unauthorised payment of £12 k, each protecting their own now? What is criminal, is the damage that this self serving self publicist has wrought . This could finish AWEMA, mind you , I would be interested to see what they actually have managed to do,for apart from the self congratulatory reports of another spectacular succesfull year for AWEMA, on it's web site, oh and a curry night and bollywood style dance courses, how is that going to assist the BME community in the long run. No if he has a streak of decency, which I doubt, (and I'm going to be interested what comes out about his behaviour in the April employment tribunal),Malik would resign and pay back the monies that he's obtained for him and his daughter from the public purse and dissapear quietly from the public gaze.”

“Further to my last point, guess what, on his Linkedin page Malik proudly boasts that he was a PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTANT FOR THE NHS!!!!!!!!! for a considerable time,and therfore he must be well aware of the rules of handling Public Monies. This stinks more and more!”

“And of course HMRC might want a word with him shortly”

“If you look on their Web site as to what their activities are there is nothing really useful that they are doing and most of it just duplicates things already being done”

“Rita Austin is using the tried and tested defence against the complaints.

http://tinyurl.com/7ssb5wt

Having watched her pathetic interview on the BBC last week, this comes as no surprise. For someone who's committee member of numerous organisations, I'd have thought she'd be experienced enough to keep well clear of this nest of vipers.”

“It would appear that Naz Malik, Rita Austin and others within AWEMA follow the principle of "Plausible Deny-ability" I have to tell them YOU ARE NO LONGER PLAUSIBLE. get the true inside story at AWEMA http://tinyurl.com/74gtljc”

“I don't think anyone has spoken against AWEMA in and of itself more the actions of Naz Malik and his poor standard of behaviour both financially and in handling staff.
The matter would be resolved if he admitted his shortcomings and resigned.”

“"So the media becomes judge and jury? Whatever happened to due process? Most of the media has actually reported this issue in a rather biased way. Naz Malik hasn't even responded to any of the allegations against him and yet some people are happy to judge! What a disgrace.

The only time the issues had any chance of an airing was on Dragons Eye last week - and then it ended in being an 'anti-Awema' programme. Even the charity's Chairwoman (Dr Austin) was barracked and bullied by the presenter. It does actually seem as if parts of the Welsh media are determined to shut down Wales' ONLY BME organisation."
.”

“by john225
Wednesday, February 8 2012, 11:51PM
."A few points:

1) IF the Welsh Assembly finds no criminality or corruption (as has been alleged) then those ex trustees who have made the allegations should be barred from future Trustee positions with the Charities Commission;

2) IF the Assembly finds no criminality or corruption then those employees who have made the allegations should be dismissed and prosecuted for defamation and destabilising a successful charity and wasting public money in spurious allegations;

3) IF it transpires that this has been a campaign to shut down a charity maliciously, then those individuals should be prosecuted for wasting public money;

4) IF the Welsh Assembly finds no evidence of nepotism (as has been alleged) then those making the allegations should make a full public appology;

5) Since WHEN is volunteering for a charity (whilst being related to a senior member of staff) improper or illegal?

6) If allegations are about financial problems, then WHERE oh WHERE is the Finance Director in all of this? That really does begger belief!"”

“@john what joke m8 your comments are laughable”

“First Minister Carwyn Jones says the Welsh government has "nothing to hide" that it was "not clear" whether the 2003 report had been published but that now it would be made public. Mr Jones has also said: "We have nothing to hide before the people of Wales."

In that case would the Welsh Government answer a few questions

1. Why did the then Social Justice Minister Edwina Hart not reveal the fact that son of the AWEMA CEO Naz Malik Mr Iqbal Malik was employed on her staff?
2. Is this fact not a matter in which a declaration of interest should have been made?
3. Why was the report not made public but instead seems to have disappeared in the assembly library?
4. Why did the Welsh Government hold a review then totally ignore its findings and indeed do exactly the opposite of what their own report had recommended?
5. Why has the Welsh Government not bothered to contact the former trustees of AWEMA who reported the facts of this recent affair to the Welsh Government, the Charities Commission and to the South Wales Police Economic Crimes Unit?
6. Why has the Welsh Government not bothered to contact the author of the independent investigation commissioned by the former trustees Mr Paul Dunn?
7. Why is the current investigation NOT addressing the human rights allegations laid against the AWEMA CEO Naz Malik?
8. Why did the Welsh Government enter into a single tender agreement with a organisation that their review and report informs them is suspect in its governance?
9. What was the work carried out by AWEMA Chairman Mrs Rita Austin, has she has apparently does not have an electronic record anymore, surely if the Welsh Government paid somewhere between £12000 and £19000 they must have a record?

These are just a few of the questions that demand answers and if the First Minister wishes to prove that "We have nothing to hide before the people of Wales." then he should answer.

The people of Wales have a right and deserve to know the answers because Mr Jones et al it is the people of Wales who have put you where you are. You are the servants of the people of Wales and not their masters”

“http://tinyurl.com/74gtljc for the true of what happened within AWEMA not jus the finance but the human rights abuses too”

“Whether the report was made public or not is not material. The report was produced and a recomendation made to the WAG that no further funding should be given to this organisation.
The WAG appear to have ignored the advice and nor does it appear that they subjecteted the organisation to increased scrutiny. In addition serious questions have to be asked about the financial controls and management systems of this organisation. Where as well was the HR department in all of this?

THe reality is that many of these quango type charities are nothing more than a lucrative sideline for the people running them. A very nice extra income for doing almost nothing.

I would suggest that until this issue came tolight most people had never even heard of it in spite of it receiving serious amounts of public money

I suspect that as normally hapens they will try to sweep it under the carpet with no more than a token head rolling

So far this has been treated as a minor issue.

If these allegations are found to be true then the organisation needs to be closed down


What is very clear as well is that the WAG is not ensuring proper management & financial controls are in place and that proper and regular audits take place. This is far from the first time major failings and fraud have occured in WAG sponsared organisation. We have had the same with Elwa, Communities First & the Welsh Audit Office as well as many more and nothing seems to have been learned from this failings. The WAG has failed to take steps and to put processes in place to stop further repeats of this.

The problems will certainly be occuring in other WAG sponsered organisation. An audit needs to be made of all of them.”

“t seems that today's Welsh Government report will not be addressing the human rights issues of the situation at AWEMA, frankly this is a disgrace. The misuse of Public money is of course important and those involved must be brought to account for this. However, its just money, the alleged systematic bullying of staff over what seems to be a number of years something that needs to addressed sooner rather than later. The fact that the assembly will soon be going on its mid term break is alarming to say the least. For the Assembly to be going into recess leaving this issue unresolved is to say the least unsatisfactory I have stronger words to describe this but I would probably get arrested if I wrote them.

If trustees had of done what Rita Austin said and disciplined Naz Malik on 16 October board as she stated on the Dragon's Eye programme the inevitable outcome would have been a "whitewash" leaving him free to carry on his corrupt bullying activities without challenge. There would have been no report carried out by Paul Dunn, the evidence that has come to light would been totally suppressed. This exactly why Rita Austin thinks it should have been done that way.

The Dunn report points to the fact that fact that the allegations that Naz Malik declined to address do in fact have a great deal of substance to them, this being further reinforced by interviews with former and current staff members on the Dragons Eye programme. It is wholly disgraceful that a person who is pledged to support these young people from the Future Jobs Fund should treat them in such a manner.

So CEO Naz Maliks much vaunted defence consisted mainly of statements made by his own family members, well they would of course and his flat refusal to address the human rights allegations laid against him. Not surprisingly, the board members saw through this manoeuvre for what it was a tactic of distraction designed to create confusion, in short it was total obfuscation.

Rita Austin keeps trying to deflect attention from Naz Maliks own admissions of financial irregularity by stating that it was bought before the board at a later date. The fact remains that the Naz Malik after being told by the Financial Director that he should not use AWEMA money to pay off his credit card without first going to board, Naz Malik waited until the financial director was on leave and then made out a pre-signed without anyones knowledge to pay off his credit card. Hardly honest intent is it.”

“@Mick1Book....you mention "financial corruption" at AWEMA. You do realise that if it is shown that there has been no "corruption", then your comments are basically defamatory. I am always suspicious of people so apparently eager to be judge and jury....it usually suggests extreme bias or even prejudice - particularly as you (and some others) aren't even willing to wait for the report which is out later today (and which you have already rubbished). Very odd indeed.

I would, though, refer you to my previous points which are:

If the Welsh Assembly finds no criminality or corruption then those ex trustees who have made the allegations should be barred from future Trustee positions with the Charities Commission;

If there has been no criminality or corruption then those employees who made the allegations should be dismissed and prosecuted for defamation and and wasting public money ;

Also, if this has been a malicious campaign to shut down a charity then those individuals should be pursued prosecuted for wasting public money;

And finanlly, the allegations are about financial problems - WHERE on earth was the (now apparently suspended Finance Director (a Saquib Zia) and Treasurer (a Mr Matthews) in all of this? I guess at least the CEO took action! I would love to know the real reasons behind the suspension of the Finance Director....”

“What I'd like to know is: IF THE OFFICIAL REPORT FINDS NO EVIDENCE OF "CORRUPTION" (that people like 'Mick1Book' claim) THEN WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN NEXT!!? Lots of accusations have been banded about. The point is to substantiate their legitimacy!

I have been trying to research a little bit about those people who have made various claims and have found thr following:

1. Mr Saquib Zia (the Finance Director) has been suspended by the current trustees. I would really like to find out why and what the current Trustees believe he has done. If financial problems are identified in the report out today then he will probably/possibly be under investigation.

2. Ms Sylvia Bobrowska (the Finance Assistant) who was dismissed by the CEO. Again, if financial questions are raised in the report then she (like this guy Saquib Zia) will probably have serious questions to answer.

3. The 'resigned' trustees: i) the former Vice Chair, Sibani Roy, - who I saw on a previous TV report who was very odd indeed and was almost incomprehensible in what she said. There were also questions raised about her conduct on not wanting to be accountable for the decisions she took to the new Chair who was elected; ii) the former Treasurer (Mr Steve Matthews) who strangely resigned just before the Finance Director (Zia) was suspended by the charity; iii) and Sam Singh (not sure what his role was) but obviously did a runner as the issues were being resolved. I wonder why?

4. Finally, this Paul Dunn guy (who did the so-called 'independent report') - apparently the current Chair (Dr Rita Austin) has asked him for his terms of reference and letter of contract & his CV to do the work and can't find anything at all.....despite speaking to him apparently and asking him directly. What the HELL is that all about? He hasn't backed up his accusations (which he just repeats) and now can't even provide a basic letter of contract for his services. Those Trustees who have resigned obviously did a really shoddy job. They've jumped on the anti-Awema band-wagon, but if there is no "corruption" found then they will have shown themselves to have been totally incompetent and weak Trustees. It may well be that they were trying to protect their own skins by allowing the muck-raking to go ahead.”

“In my opinion, the behaviour of the trustees and those disgruntled former employees are a key issue here. Let's unpick the two 'allegations':

1. 'Alleged Corruption' - only the official report can determine that (and it's out today). If there hasn't been any then those ex Trustees (Mr Steve Matthews, Sam Singh and Sibani Roy) should be taken to task by the charity commission. The suspended Finance Director (Saquib Zia) may also be in danger of being disbarred by his professional body if he has been malicious in his claims.

2. 'Alleged Nepotism' - It's not an offence to have members of one's family working at the same organisation. If appointments are shown to have been proper then those complaining will have been guilty of defamation and should be dismissed with their contract of employment terminated.”

“this story has very many similarities to the SBREC chairman Mr Naz Malik, dated 09/10/1999, of an ex gratia payment of £12,222 plus£1,419 in legal fees,when MrJohn Williams swansea councils ass.director of managment services, flagged up why this resulted in a net trading loss of £14,589!”

“Another interesting Dragon's Eye tonight BBC 11.35 by the looks of it.

Join Felicity Evans as she takes a fresh look at politics through the Dragon's Eye, including the Welsh government's decision on allegations of financial corruption at troubled equalities body AWEMA.”

“awema- does this latest news mean we will get to know whats happened to £8 million ,thats been spent to date?”

“Dr Rita Austin said ...
http://tinyurl.com/6r9eflg
"..."All of us who continue to serve on the board at Awema - myself as chair, continuing trustees and CEO (Mr Malik) - will carry out our responsibility to manage an orderly exit for the only minority ethnic development organisation which works across Wales,..."

So Malik, will still be involved in Awema right to the end, and may well be in a position to vote himself and his daughter a nice redundancy package.

I can only assume Dr Rita Austin has lost her marbles.”

“Very little is being said about the Assemblies failure in this the latests of maany failures and fraud with public money

The WAG aproach seems to be to hand over huge amounts of money to organisations and then just let them get on with it with no monitoring or auditing of them

THe assembly should be made accountable for this. No private company would just hand over money and just then let them get on with it. If say a private company uses a sub contractor that sub contractor is monitored in many ways to ensure it delivers to the contract and that the quaility and delivery is acceptable

At the moment the assembly is demonstrating it is not upto the job. Prior to this we had the Welsh Audit Office scandle”

“Can the person called "john225" please reveal yourself?? you had enough to say on the subject before this report was published but you have said nothing since, I wonder why?? In my opinion I think you are a family member or someone very close to Mr Malik to defend him so highy when everyone else could see through him and you. He abused his position for his and his famalies gain financially through tax payers money. Truth is the gravy train has been cut off now thank god.”

“awema-gate, The punch&judy show is about to start at the w.a.g.,=yes you did ,no i.didnt, the sooner thoseinvolved followed a simple guidline,THE BUCK STOPS HERE! we all wont be bored silly by this ongoing debacle!!!”

“awema-gate!- Here we are again! ministers playing fast and loose with our hard earned money.why has the WAG been able to shovel money at this organisation? my own view is that welsh labour was using it to promote its own ideals amongst these minorities,in order for it to glean votes in elections! --when we have the best welfare system in the world,eg-cradle to grave,what needs does these politicians think the ethnic groups lack,when allocating monies to these groups?, we all have paid good taxes for the health service etc.,why does the taxpyer have to pay twice?????”

“The one thing you can be certain of is the WAG will deny any responsibility for this failure of these and will use spin and hype and unfortuntly the majority of the electorate will be quite happy to let them wriggle out of the responsibility

The WAG funded this organisation and the WAG are responsible for this. They failed to act on a previous report and previous information given to them.

It is taxpayers money they are wasting. The WAG are responsible for ensuring it is spent properly and clearly they failed to do so.”

“awema-gate! The welsh assembly should instigate a vote of no confidece in the leaders of the assembly,as the only political party to been in power since its inception,so as to clear what many see as total ineptitude amongst its leaders!!!. Better still they should resign!!.”

“Well, what a surprise! EWEMA was a junket for the few to the detriment of the many, the people they were supposed to represent, the Welsh Taxpayers and those who trusted the management with our funds!
Could we all have an apology from those who quickly tried to turn this whole sorry mess into a "racial" issue. I speak of in particular the chairperson who consistently and regularly spoke to the media about the racial undertones to those who were raising valid questions.
Also, maybe BMEWales1967 who claimed it was Cameron who was at fault and gave anyone who had serious misgivings on what was happening a right ear-full, where are you?????
HANG YOUR HEADS IN SHAME FOR TRYING TO PROTECT THOSE WHO HAVE BROUGHT THIS CHARITY TO SHAME AND APOLOGISE PUBLICALLY TO ALL THOSE NEEDY PEOPLE WHO WERE RELYING ON YOU TO HELP THEM IN SOCIETY.”

“Saddned, Gorseinon Joe, trunkles , Roselilly and Bobevans, well said , completely agree and I don't anticipate hearing from BMEWales or 225 again. They are apologists for people who have done more damage to the third sector through their greed and avarice than anyone else have.I fervently believe your comments as well as mine over this issue have been for the right and judicious reasons and the apologists should hang their head in shame. Malik, Austin et al need to answer questions and I hope that the enquiry ends the self serving careers of those involved who quickly run to the shadows when caught in the light of honesty and fair dealing. To the honest hard working staff at AWEMA, we salute you for your principles, for the others and , you know who and what you are, shame on you!”