WELCOME OPENNESS FROM ERIC PICKLES: WHEN WILL OTHER DEPARTMENTS FOLLOW?

A reader kindly brought to my attention the fact that MEPs and officials in Brussels can obtain Methadone and Viagra free on the Health Insurance taken out for them as part of their salary packages.

I had just finished a reply to him (or her) and turned to the papers to see if there was anything of interest worth blogging about.

Lo and behold, the Telegraph provided me with a story which I think probably goes to show that it doesn’t much matter where the government is, London or Brussels, or Edinburgh, and for that matter probably Paris, Helsinki and Bamako (just in case you don't recognise the name), ministers and officials will find ways of spending our cash that don’t directly benefit us, but do directly benefit them.

In an attempt to be open and clear about what happened under the last government Eric Pickles has opened the books of the Communities Department of England. It has to be hoped that other departments of state will be so open. Clearly, as a Scotsman, I’d like to see the departments that affect my country do the same thing, most particularly the Scotland Office.

Among the items that I found interesting in the spend were: £635,000 on taxis and cars, £16 million on marketing, advertising, promotion and events, and £310,000 on catering and food. Amazingly large sums were spent wellbeing and training companies, therapies, acupressure massage, Indian Head Massage and Reflexology.

Money was even spent on trips to Blackpool Pleasure Beach and a nature reserve and on football clubs, including Manchester City and Manchester United.

Nearly £200,000 was spent on hotels including the Hilton, Royal Horseguards and at the Thistle Hotel, Marble Arch in central London.

Of course it is normal for private enterprise to use hotels, take staff on away days and fund training courses provided by outside organizations, and of course, given the size of the department, some of the sums are pretty small. But it has to be remembered that we were in a deep recession during the year in question and all extraneous costs should have been cut from government departments’ budgets as they were from commercial organisations. I’m sure that under Mr Pickles’ guidance, there will be no spending of this kind at all.

Bob Neill, the Local Government Minister said that the department had been living it up at the taxpayers’ expense whilst thousands of households were struggling to make ends meet. It was unforgivable, he said, that a culture of excess was allowed to flourish for so long.

English Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said: "The simple task of putting spending online will open the doors to an army of armchair auditors who will be able to see at a glance exactly where millions of pounds spent last year went. Looking at last year's spending it is clear that there is room for improvement."

Both Mr Pickles and Mr Neill should of course be aware that the day to day running of government departments is not really the ministers’ job. That task falls to the Permanent Secretary and his (or her) staff. I expect that the fact that this was allowed to go on will be a black mark on the records of these senior staff, and that any impending honours, which by custom go to these “top” people, will be reconsidered very carefully.

Hopefully when next years’ figures are published, not one penny piece of money will have been wasted on fripperies. I image too that all ministers in the department will find that the Telegraph will scrutinize their own expenses very closely.