Education Minister Jane Davidson announced the changes

Education Minister Jane Davidson has announced the top management team at the education body, Education Learning Wales (Elwa), is to be expanded with a pair of new positions - a chief executive and a finance director.

The move aims to better control the finances of the organisation which provides education and training for over-16s and has budget of �800m.

It comes after a series of criticisms over the way Elwa has handled its finances since it was created two years ago.

'Indictment'

Assembly government officials have denied the additional posts means the senior management team of Elwa would be 'split.'

Please don't denigrate the whole organisation on the issues of two financial contracts Jane Davidson

But opposition politicians at the Welsh Assembly described it as a "sad indictment" of her performance and have called on her to apologise for not setting up a shadow body before Elwa was created.

Elwa is made up to two organisations: The Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) and the National Council for Education and Training for Wales.

Under fire

HEFCW is responsible for funding universities and colleges while the National Council is responsible for post-16 education and training.

The two bodies currently have the same chief executive and finance director.

The new postholders will head Elwa, while the current chief executive and finance director will move over to those posts at HEFCW.

The two bodies' joint budget makes them the largest quango run from Cardiff Bay, but the organisation has come under fire for the way it has dealt with its cash.

Elwa paid out �4m for the Pop Factory which is still unfinished

In January, an official audit report alleged that Elwa had spent �2.2m of public money without the proper authority from the Welsh Assembly Government.

It has also emerged that Elwa made a �4m advance payment to the multi-media company Avanti to pay for the Pop Factory Cafe project in Porth, Rhondda, but the premises have yet to be fully renovated and not a single young person has been trained.

And this week, a leaked letter by the Welsh local government association warned Elwa that it was underfunding sixth forms in Wales by almost �11m.

'Convenient'

Tory AM Alun Cairns referred to the criticism of Elwa's financial management when Ms Davidson announced in the Welsh Assembly the creation of the new management jobs.

He said: "Is not the restructuring of Elwa at this time awfully convenient bearing in mind all of those scandals for which she accepts no responsibility?"

In the same debate, Plaid Cymru Leader, Ieuan Wyn Jones, called on Ms Davidson to acknowledge that 'mistakes were made, and that you as minister were accountable for those, and should apologise accordingly.'

But Ms Davidson told BBC Wales on Thursday that she had been "acutely concerned" about the allegations over the Pop Factory project and other Elwa procurement issues.

'Confident'

"While these issues are hugely serious, please don't denigrate the whole organisation on the issues of two financial contracts, when what we know is there is tremendous success in learning opportunities in Wales."

She said the creation of the two executives posts would help the two bodies to manage their "hugely ambitious" agendas.

"I'm confident this will ensure that both councils will go from strength to strength."