DCLG opens books to public
Author: Local Government Chronicle |
The Department for Communities & Local Government has published a list of every item of expenditure above 500 made in the past year.
In a move that fulfils communities secretary Eric Pickles’ pledge to make sure his own department meets the transparency demands he is making, some 1900 items of expenditure made between April 2009 and 2010 were published on the DCLG website on Thursday morning. The total value of expenditure was 314m and included some
The released data gives the value of the contract, the supplier and a broad procurement category. However, it does not give a description of what the contract was for.
The top 10 items of expenditure by value made by DCLG over the past year were:
Managed/Outsourced Services Airwave Solutions Ltd 43,757,796.58
Telecoms Airwave Solutions Ltd 25,702,152.98
Software Ordnance Survey 21,616,014.07
Accommodation Services Land Securities Properties Ltd 16,605,116.32
Strategic Consultancy Mott Macdonald Ltd 9,282,927.91
Strategic Consultancy PA Consulting Services Limited 7,608,069.10
Advertising Central Office Of Information 7,416,053.07
Purchase VT Critical Services Ltd 6,631,216.36
Hardware Eads Defence & Security Systems Ltd 6,167,163.15
Accommodation Services CB Richard Ellis 4,571,935.17
The spending included 635,000 on taxis and cars and nearly 310,000 on catering and food. The figures also show the department last year spent 16m on marketing, advertising, promotion and events.
Mr 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. The public and the press can go through the books and hold Ministers to account for how taxpayers’ money is being spent.
?The data is already highlighting how we need to do things differently. That means spending more carefully, getting better deals and asking ourselves at every turn whether every purchase is needed and whether it provides value for the taxpayers’ pound. Looking at last year’s spending it is clear that there is room for improvement.?
The material also revealed that the government offices for the regions ran up bills of more than 100,000 on market research and polling last year.
It also spent more than 1,600 on massages for staff and 539 on an away-day trip to Blackpool pleasure beach.
Local government minister Bob Neill said: ?It seems quite literally the government offices were taking the taxpayer for a ride.
?They were living it up at the taxpayer’s expense whilst thousands of households were struggling to make ends meet.