Welsh Development Agency 'may have hired call girls'

THE Welsh Development Agency, the body charged with reviving the Welsh economy, could have hired call girls to work at exhibitions, it was claimed last night, writes Tony Heath.

Rhodri Morgan, Labour MP for Cardiff West, said information leaked by a senior employee at the agency showed that pounds 2,500 had been paid to a model agency.

Mr Morgan alleged that several of the 11 invoices submitted by Shapes Model Agency, of Glenroy Street, in the Roath district of Cardiff, failed to itemise the service provided.

He said: 'I'm told that one invoice covered the attendance by a young lady at the Celtic Bay Hotel in the city for two and a half hours on a Sunday afternoon for the purpose of being interviewed for a position as a model with the agency.'

He added: 'The more you go into this the more you come face to face with the fact that the WDA may have hired call girls.'

He said that Dr Gwyn Jones, chairman of the WDA, should 'seriously consider his position'.

A WDA spokesman said that the invoices, understood to cover the period around the turn of the year, had been raised by a former member of staff, now dismissed 'for unconnected reasons'.