A business pressure group says the bitter dispute between the last Government and contractors who worked on the foot-and-mouth clean up - who are still owed £40m - must be resolved as a matter of priority by the next Government. The Forum of Private Business (FPB), which has been fighting on behalf of small firms, including three in the North-East, that are owed cash by Defra, says the failure to pay many contractors is totally unacceptable. FPB chief executive Nick Goulding said: "The FPB knows firms which have gone bust because they could not operate any longer without being paid the cash they were owed by Defra. "These are businesses which helped the Government at a time of national crisis and did a superb job in extremely pressured circumstances. The new Government must sort out this quite appalling situation so hard working honest firms are paid the cash that is rightfully owed to them. "The culture of prevarication and inefficiency which has characterised Defra's handling of the foot-and-mouth contractors must not be allowed to continue into a new term. This is a fresh start and FPB calls on the new Government to pay up. Mr Goulding dismissed as a tired excuse Defra's plea that some invoices submitted by contractors contained irregularities. He said: "While we have no objection to Defra attempting to protect the public purse by insisting on proper invoicing, many of those still waiting to be paid insist that they did all they could under extreme circumstances to get the right paperwork in place. Most of these firms have been subjected to nearly four years of forensic accounting at the hands of Defra officials, which has in itself cost millions to carry out." A spokesman for Defra said: "The department is disputing payment in cases where it believes on the basis of the quantum, accounting, technical and legal advice it has received, that it was overcharged for goods, services and works during the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak. "Several cases are in the High Court. Other cases are the subject of alternative disputes resolution procedures. Other cases are the subject of formal investigation by the relevant authorities." According to FPB figures, more than 1,200 contractors were involved in the foot-and-mouth crisis and less than one per cent of those contractors' claims have been, or are currently being, investigated as fraudulent. At the publication date of the report, not a single contractor had been prosecuted as a result of the investigations. The FPB says that 18 allegations of fraud have been made against contractors: of these, six claims have been dismissed and 12 are still under investigation. Also, 19 civil servants were found guilty of fraud, which led to four members of staff being prosecuted and 15 subjected to internal disciplinary proceedings, for fraudulent claims made during the handling of the crisis. | 
Business Comment
Enterprise North East
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