Lavish expenses of the Audit Commission

[longfingernails]

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8471687/Public-spending-watchdog-chiefs-spend-thousands-on-fine-dining.html

It seems that the quangocrats at the Audit Commission seems to have a particular penchant for Michelin starred restaurants.

Strangely, Polly Toynbee seems to be particularly upset about the scrapping of this shamefully wasteful quango. I wonder why?

Because the need for a particular institution's role to be fulfilled is not the same issue as the expense claims of those at its head, maybe?

The Audit Commission isn't necessary. Just publish everything about public expenditure online, and there is nowhere to hide. You just need to see the way that the quangocrats at the top of the Audit Commission and other parts of the public sector are trying to fight the transparency agenda.

The Audit Commission became a way for councillors to make trouble for their political opponents by escalating petty disputes.

As for Polly Toynbee, I think at least partly, it might be because Eric Pickles is scrapping her husband's unnecessary public sector fat-cat job as head of the Audit Commission...

I've just been made redundant from the Audit Commission.

Re the quotes in the article:

These revelations show a deep-rooted culture of waste in the Audit Commission,? he said. ?The body was treating the government procurement card as its flexible friend, spending taxpayers? cash as if it had just won the lottery.

?What is so disturbing is that their expenses read like a shopping list for some lavish party. It seems the Audit Commission was not applying the checks and balances on itself that it preached to councils.?

I totally agree with that.

David Walker wasn't the head of the Audit Commission though, he was MD comms.

Very sorry to hear about that audiconnection - but it doesn't change the fact that the senior management were evidently wasting money - and that transparency in public sector expenditure makes many/most functions of the Commission unnecessary.

Um, have you read my post? I was agreeing with you

I know.

Why did you say "but it doesn't change the fact that the senior management were evidently wasting money - and that transparency in public sector expenditure makes many/most functions of the Commission unnecessary" as if I disagreed with you then?

Sorry! I didn't mean to sound as if I was disagreeing with you - I was just reinforcing what I said earlier.

Ok.

oi Audi
did you get any nice grub?

Not in any michelin starred places forlornhope. I was only an underling.

Greedy fuckers.
Yes the odious Polly Toynbee's husband did very well indeed out of his fat cat job there, complete with pay off.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1387181/Public-spending-chiefs-90-lunch-BBCs-Evan-Davis.html

Yet more lavish dining by the Audit Commission - quangos dining quangos - and the BBC, for good measure!

The Audit Commission were always crap. Not least by allowing truly truly truly crap councils to get away with it, by giving them reports showing improvement. Improvement my arse foot.