03-05-2006, 02:06 PM
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#1 (permalink)
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Administrator
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Long Ashton, Bristol
Posts: 10,208
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East Anglian MEP Savages Beckett over Single Farm Payments
http://www.ukip.org/ukip_news/gen12.php?t=1&id=2131
Quote:
Jeffrey Titford MEP, the UK Independence Party’s agriculture spokesman, has described the Environment Secretary, Margaret Beckett’s application to the European Commission for an extension of the Single Farm Payment (SFP) deadline to 15th October, as a “tacit admission of gross administrative incompetence, which under normal circumstances would be a resigning issue”.
Mr Titford said: “This is confirmation of yet another governmental debacle, which is costing farmers a fortune. I have serious concerns about the way this whole matter has been handled. For instance, what was Farming Minister, Lord Bach doing sending out a press statement on behalf of the Rural Payments Agency, at the end of January, with the over-confident heading of “Full CAP payments will begin in February”? The wording itself said that the ‘bulk’ of the 120,000 payments will be made by the end of March. Now he has publicly revised the timetable to the end of June, while Mrs Beckett wants an extension from the EU until mid-October, so it is pretty clear that Lord Bach’s timetable is going to be revised again.
“I have had a large postbag of responses from farmers about the problems they have been having in applying for their SFPs. They have outlined a catalogue of administrative failure. The labyrinthine complexity of the procedure and the Government’s inability to provide sufficient co-ordinated resources to handle the paperwork, are the major problems. Too many different departments are involved in the process. All seem to be working independently of each other and not communicating properly, leaving farmers tearing their hair out.
“I wrote to Mrs Beckett on 7th April and again on 24th April seeking an explanation for this fiasco and assurances that it was being dealt with as quickly as possible. I have yet to receive the courtesy of a reply to either letter. With farmers having to fork out an estimated £13 million per month in interest payments on money they have been forced to borrow to tide them over, the Government must get its act together and quickly. Mrs Beckett is ultimately responsible for this mess and she cannot, it seems, with all the resources of government, even find time to deal with her correspondence.
“It will add insult to injury if the Commission refuses the extension and the Government ends up needlessly paying fines. Under normal circumstances, this mind boggling tale of bungling, bureaucratic ineptitude would lead to a resignation. Regrettably, with the Government so deeply in the mire in other, even more serious areas, it constitutes a mere bagatelle!”
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