The Guardian runs a report on how your tax money gets spent:
A "culture of excess" at
the Department of Trade and Industry is laid bare in a confidential
report leaked to the Guardian which shows officials spending nights in
expensive hotels, hiring BMW cars, having unrestricted use of
government mobile phones and consuming large quantities of cocktails at
taxpayers’ expense.
When
accountants Ernst & Young questioned an official about her study of
British export prospects in Barbados, their report says: "[She]
admitted that they had not conducted market research, but had, in fact,
spent the afternoon on the beach."
The confidential inquiry
into the DTI’s export agency, UK Trade & Investment, has already
led to the sacking of one senior official, international trade director
David Train, and the suspension and continued investigation of three of
his colleagues, including Mr Train’s deputy Franc Sullivan.
….
Ernst & Young’s
preliminary report, delivered on July 19, outlines spending at the
agency’s Christmas lunch for 10 staff last year. It was held at a hired
room at the Hilton Metropole in London, and paid for with a
government-issue Barclaycard. The report said that a bar was opened
shortly after 2pm and closed at 7.17pm. During that time £475 was spent
on drinks: two beers; 14 vodkas and mixers; 23 gin and tonics; 11
bottles of wine; seven litres of sparkling water; three Irish coffees;
five coffees; three whisky shots; three shots of Cointreau; two
Cosmopolitan cocktails; two Bloody Marys; three Mojito cocktails and
two BaseLine cocktails. Ernst & Young wrote: "We consider this
expenditure to be excessive and in contravention of DTI policy".
Bureaucrats are, of course, hard working public servants who give up the opportunity to make much more in the private sector in order to to provide the public goods that cannot be obtained by any other means.
There is also no such thing as producer capture nor public choice theory. Simply selfless devotees of the common good.
Owen?
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