howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#1
from the telegraph, something for liam fox to get his teeth into.
Over the past four years, the MoD spent £986,041,110 on department credit cards, far more than any other government body. The disclosure will add to concerns over the management of the ministry, which is grappling with a multi-billion pound black hole in its finances.
Last night the MoD refused to follow other departments in publishing a breakdown of expenditure on the cards, which would identify any questionable purchases. It is understood that the bill includes spending on travel and hotels.
The Daily Telegraph has learnt that several officials at the department have been privately disciplined or prosecuted over fraudulent or inappropriate use of the cards.Details of the MoD's credit card expenditure have come to light after the Cabinet Office published a list of the 20 government departments or bodies with the largest taxpayer-funded credit card bills. The Environment Agency and the BBC have also been identified as among the biggest spenders.
This week The Daily Telegraph published details of a memo showing that 5,000 soldiers face losing their jobs by 2015 in addition to the 7,000 redundancies already announced in the defence review.