THE Teesside Development Corporation was far too powerful and lacked any real accountability, according to an expert in Government-funded organisations.

Professor Fred Robinson, of Durham University, said that the result was senior civil servants were afraid to intervene in its affairs.

Yesterday's Public Accounts Committee report into the TDC concluded that officials failed to take rigorous action to ensure that its activities were brought into line, despite warning signals.

It said that Government departments should take a close interest in the working framework of so-called quangos and the performance of chief executives be reviewed with weight given to the proper management of public funds.

A quango (quasi autonomous non-governmental organisation) has members appointed by the Government - usually from representatives of employers, trade unions and local government.

They are funded by the Government and are answerable to it directly in turn.

Professor Robinson, an expert in urban and regional development and quangos, said: "The TDC had tremendous autonomy and there was a sense in which civil servants were afraid to tackle and challenge the people running it."

The TDC, whose remit was to regenerate more than 12,000 acres of land for urban development, was launched in 1987 with the blessing of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and was one of 12 urban development corporations.

"The Conservatives said they were going to get rid of these quangos, but they ended creating more of them," Prof Robinson said. "Governments will always be tempted to do this because they can hand over responsibility to people they appoint and give them the power and ability to get things done and cut through problems.

"The danger is that people, as in this case, end up doing what they want and there are real problems with accountability."

The public was barred from TDC meetings for reasons of "commercial confidentiality" and papers were also not made available so people could see what was going on, he said.

Prof Robinson said: "The TDC should have been more accountable, as not only were they spending our money, what they did is going to be around for 50-odd years."

The urban development corporations, said by critics to have been "foisted" on many areas by central Government, have since been partly replaced by regional development agencies such as One North-East. Their boards are forced to adopt a code of practice and have audit committees which produce regular reports on performance which are then scrutinised by the Government.