Thursday 20th June, 2013

Procurement cards are often seen as a way to protect against maverick spend and a means of keeping track on expenditure. However documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act has revealed a series of unusual P-Card purchases at a number of councils across the country.

At Barking and Dagenham council, £10,000 was spent on flowers for the chief executive's office, while at Essex County Council staff ran up a £457 bill at the Connaught restaurant in London. The papers show that further examples such as a £272 meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Torquay, while unusual, were not unprecedented.

Spending on foreign travel between 2007 - 2012 amounted to £3.7m, according to a recent article in The Sunday Times