Global Cultural Diversity Congress

HC Deb 22 February 2000 vol 344 cc862-3W

Mr. Kidney

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement about requests for additional funding for the Global Cultural Diversity Congress. [111905]

Mr. Mike O'Brien

On 11 January 2000, the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) asked the Home Office for authority to provide funding to enable the Global Cultural Diversity Congress, in Cardiff on 20-23 March to go ahead as planned and subsequently asked for additional funding from the Home Office Vote. This international conference was being organised under the auspices of the CRE following decisions they made in 1998 but by a separate company limited by guarantee, Global Cultural Diversity Congress (GCDC) 2000 Ltd. At the time they first decided to proceed in 1998, it was made clear that the Government could not offer substantial financial support for the Conference.

The Government have supported the aims of the Congress, which was a potentially important forum for serious debate about issues of race and diversity, and was widely welcomed by many with an interest in these issues both in this country and worldwide.

In the light of the CRE request in January this year for Government funding, the Government thought it right to seek advice from independent consultants on the viability of the conference at this late stage, including from forensic accountants who examined the affairs of GCDC 2000 Ltd.

The conclusions of the accountants' report raised serious questions about the quality of the management and financial controls in GCDC 2000 Ltd. as well as confirming that very significant additional funds, in the order of £1.5 million, would be required to enable the Congress to go ahead, not least because less than 500 tickets had been sold for a congress initially planned to attract 2,000.

Given the report's findings, it would not be justifiable to use substantial public funds to support this event. Yesterday, the Directors of the company were advised of the report's findings and our decision. I understand that the Directors of GCDC 2000 Ltd. decided late yesterday to put the company into liquidation.

The decision to set up GCDC 2000 Ltd. was a collective one of the Commissioners for Racial Equality, taken in September 1998. I have asked the incoming Chair of the CRE, Gurbux Singh, to consider urgently the lessons to be learned from all of this and to provide us with a report.