Pet food, trips on the London Eye and £700 hotels: How Whitehall is STILL blowing your cash

January 6th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

Department for Transport spent £616 on ONE Eurostar ticket… which could be bought for £69 online
House of Commons spends £1.5million on procurement cards including money spent with iTunes and ceremonial shoes for the speaker
Ministry of Justice spent £500 with pet food supplier

By
James Chapman

Last updated at 11:59 PM on 5th January 2012

Whitehall officials
are continuing to waste taxpayers’ money on everything from exotic pet
food, trips on the London Eye, exorbitant Eurostar tickets and fine
dining.

Government
departments have to reveal any item that costs more than £500 as part of
a crackdown on public sector profligacy launched by the Coalition.

Unfortunately, it seems mandarins are finding it hard to curb their expensive habits.

Where It Went

At the Ministry of Justice,
more than £500 was spent at a pet food supplier which sells ‘high
quality food and supplements for the more exotic animals and birds to be
found in zoos, pet shops and homes.’ Officials there also spent £694 at
a website which provides ‘a catalogue service to record collectors in
the UK and overseas’.

The
Department for Transport – which should know a thing or two about the
railways – spent £616 on one Eurostar ticket, which could have been
bought online for £69. ‘Speechwriting’ and ‘public speaking training’
cost the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs £2,870.63.
Its staff also charged taxpayers £1,007.40 for canapes served at the
Darwin Lecture, an event hosted by environment minister Richard Benyon
in London.

Defra officials
also enjoyed the Indian food at the upmarket Cinnamon Club in
Westminster, spending £777 entertaining guests from the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development.

From June 2010 until June 2011, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, meanwhile, spent £297,395.43 flying flags.

Extravagance: Officials in the Department for Transport spent £616 on one Eurostar ticket which could have been bought online for £69

The Home Office charged
taxpayers £1,934 on corporate hospitality from the ‘watchfromabox’
website and £1,695 for trips on the London Eye.

Large bills have also been run up by other Government departments at top London restaurants.

Shadow
Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Rachel Reeves, said: ‘Before the
election David Cameron promised to act immediately to cut waste, and
said Conservatives loathe waste.

Crackdown: David Cameron has pledged to crackdown on Government profligacy

‘But we now know that 710,000 public
servants are losing their jobs, including 16,000 police officers. At the
same time as they are cutting front line services, families are facing
the biggest squeeze in their incomes in a generation.

‘It is unacceptable for the Government to waste money while schools, hospital and transport budgets are all being hit hard.

‘Has
the Prime Minister challenged his ministers on their spending on exotic
pet food, extortionate Eurostar tickets and canapes?

‘People
will rightly want to see a full explanation for spending on these
items.’ Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude, however, stressed that
billions of pounds have been saved on public spending thanks to the
Coalition’s decision to make Britain ‘the world leader in transparency’.

‘This lets the public hold us to account: it is not always comfortable but always salutary,’ he said.

The
Government is also clamping down on the ‘abuse’ of government credit
cards, making public bodies open their spending up to public scrutiny.
Freedom of information requests revealed that under Labour, staff at the
Government Offices for the Regions – a collection of regional quangos –
used the cards to buy yoga equipment, American holidays and even video
games.

House of Commons
officials also ran up a bill of £1.5million on their own procurement
cards on items including French lessons, iTunes and ceremonial shoes for
the Speaker.

Last night a Ministry of Justice source said the exotic pet food it bought would have been for specially trained prison dogs.

‘The
Government procurement card is only used for essential departmental
business and we have a zero tolerance policy on abuse of the system,’ he
added.

‘Disciplinary
action will be taken against staff where there is evidence of
wrongdoing. The MoJ is committed to transparency and public
accountability.’

Quango's £6.5m credit card