MERSEYSIDE’S official tourism and investment body is negotiating its second six-figure financial bail-out in barely a year.

But its new chairman, Rod Holmes, is confident the support – agreed in principle by local Town Halls – will put the organisation on its strongest-ever footing.

Bureaucratic blunders made by The Mersey Partnership (TMP) over four years have left it £750,000 out of pocket.

Last year, its cash flow ran dry and the North- west Development Agency (NWDA) had to step in to save it from insolvency.

Now Merseyside’s councils are being asked to stump up more taxpayers’ money to bolster the organisation’s reserves.

Mr Holmes, project director for Liverpool One, who took the reins at TMP on October 1, said agreement had been reached in principle.

“Since I joined, I’ve been delighted to find the strength of the team we have here. We now have the most robust systems in place and this will put us on the best financial footing we have ever been on.

“It’s really important at a time which is so exciting and with so many opportunities for the Liverpool city region.”

Lorraine Rogers, who was appointed TMP’s chief executive 13 months ago, also launched a spirited defence of the body. She told the Daily Post: “I’ve inherited systems and financial controls that I haven’t been happy with, and have therefore made wholesale changes, and as an organisation this is the new TMP.

“There were some areas of financial control that needed tightening up. It wouldn’t happen now, it couldn’t happen now in the TMP because we have much stronger financial functions.”

The Princes Parade-based quango was left with the £750,000 bill after claims to recoup grants it had handed out were found to be ineligible.

The Mersey Partnership (TMP) was nominated to funnel money into bodies championing the city region’s industries.

Between 2002 and 2006, it gave out more than £10.7m of grants to groups from nine sectors including maritime, information technology and tourism.

But because of intricacies in the rules governing grants and the dates paperwork needed filing, many of the hand-outs could not be bankrolled.

Ms Rogers was at pains to point out that there was no suggestion that the money was improperly spent.

She added: “There’s nothing to say that this wasn’t a legitimate use of public funds, but the European rules on what you can claim from Europe are very complex, and the breakdown that I’ve seen shows some claims went in too early and some went in too late.

“It doesn’t mean that these programmes didn’t meet targets.”

A part of the money was from the European Objective 1 pro-gramme, and the blunder came to light after Government Office North West audited those grants. They found £522,000 of hand-outs could not be reclaimed by TMP.

The Northwest Development Agency (NWDA) also tried to claw back £229,000 of grants.

But the Warrington-based agency – which bailed TMP out last year when its cash flow stalled – agreed to write off the money after pleas from Ms Rogers and her team.

In an email from NWDA finance director Ian Haythornthwaite and seen by the Daily Post, he told TMP: “We will not be exercising our right to claw back the £229,000.”

NWDA chief executive Steve Broomhead said the decision to write the money off was not taken lightly.

He added: “We’re not a bank, are we?

“We made sure there was due diligence work taken before we made the decision – checking that TMP couldn’t deal with this matter on its own.

“While we’ve helped them with the clawback, they are in a much stronger financial position now.”

The remaining £522,000 is still under negotiation. It is under-stood that – even after “frank” discussions – GONW refused to write off any of the money and left TMP to foot the bill.W

Around three-quarters of its £500,000 of reserves was wiped away when £376,000 of the money was written out of their accounts.

TMP and the recipients of the grants – which include shipping body Mersey Maritime – are in ne-gotiations over how much of the remaining £146,000 will be clawed back from the bodies, and how much more TMP will have to absorb.

Ms Rogers added: “The board looked at its role as the organisation responsible for economic development in Merseyside and TMP will take on the lion’s share of it out of choice.”

The board is going cap-in-hand to the six Merseyside councils, which are TMP board members themselves, to ask them to bolster the reserves by donating more cash.

Ms Rogers continued: “At the end of the day this is a matter for the board.

“They have their duties as directors. So with one hat on they are local authority leaders and with another hat on they are directors with legal responsib- ilities to look after TMP.”

OPINION: PAGE 12

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