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Fresh row on MP expenses
Thursday 10th December 2009, 11:14AM GMT.
MPs’ expenses were under the microscope again today as fresh details of their second home allowance claims were released by the House of Commons authorities.
Hundreds of thousands of forms and receipts for claims for 2008/09 were published on the internet.
Read the full details here and give us your comments via the form below
But today’s disclosures did not come without controversy.
For Westminster was accused of another expenses cover-up after it was revealed that the totals claimed by each MP would not be released – sparking a fresh row. But after an 11th-hour U-turn, Commons officials announced they would be released later this afternoon.
Senior MPs had planned to withhold the headline figures until after an extensive process of repayments had been completed in January.
That would allow any repayments made following an audit by former mandarin Sir Thomas Legg to be taken into account.
That idea was attacked yesterday by Tory leader David Cameron, who insisted the totals had to be published to show the public that politicians “get” the need for transparency.
The Members Estimate Committee, chaired by Speaker John Bercow, decided later to publish the global figures after all.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown was the among the first to make the headlines, claiming £500 for the repainting of a “summer house” in his garden. Downing Street said the PM has already repaid the money.
Mr Cameron claimed £20,240 in 2008/09 and £3,066.91 for the period covered in 2009/10.
By London Reporter Sunita Patel
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And YOU would pay out for an “invoice” as scrappy as this?
I can’t believe this is real!
No supplier name Shown
No supplier Address /details shown
No specific details of Job shown –
NO Customer address /
No specific details of works carried out
No customer order number /refernce
Honestly – again – if this is real – then whoever issued that invoice should be investigated by HMRC immediately – never mind that fact that this was used for claiming expenses.
Good Grief – No wonder the country is in such a state – can we honestly – yes honestly – trust ANYONE in government?
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This beggers belief. As a retired employee of a county council if I submitted a receipt like this I would have been interviewed under caution pending police enquiries resulting in possible dismissal
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Depends on how descriptive you want the invoice to be,paint and painting of said summer house,date, price, address blanked out, looks like a basic reciept to me and suitable to be put in. A little over the top from asckeric.com
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but Andrew, its not even on headed paper, would you really pay out on this scrap paper scribble..
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Hi Andrew Flinch.
I’m sorry – but I really can’t agree with you!
You said”date, price, address blanked out”
Well, first – the price ISNT blanked out, and of those parts that ARE blanked out – there jsuts isn’t room for an address of any proper sort!!
Come on Andrew, any self respecting contractor would at least have a proper invoice /receipt book, – showing at least an invoice number, date and invoice address etc properly printed.
Also -in my view -any REALLY decent contractor would have proper printed invoices, with trading details and logo on – not only for credibility – but also for marketing purposes.
My 5 year old grandaughter could do better than this.
And .. What is the “scrawl” to the RHS of the word “painting” – is that some sort of signature, or is it a “crossing out” of a mistake?
NO Andrew – Unless, as I say, we aren’t being shown the whole document (and lets face it – if we were to see any other parts of it – if they exist -would they be of any better quality?)
- this seems to me to be a poorly presented document – and I wouldn;t be surprised if the quality of workmanship was equally poor.
In short – a disgrace.
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Totally agree Askeric and jeffb. This insults each and everyone of us. £500 has been paid out on the strength of this tatty bit of uselessness. If this is indicative of the system – and it plainly is, both the claimant (the Prime Minister) and the person who authorised it should be prosecuted. This flies in the face of every recognised system of auditing and accounting and it would not be accepted in any single branch of the public services. In fact it wouldn’t get past the first low level clerk in the finance or accounts branch. But then we should be used to Gordon Brown’s semi-literate writing and paperwork, the man is a dunce but even he shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this.
Andrew Finch would not seem to have claimed many expenses or be conversant with all the checks and accounting that ordinary public service departments go in for. We are not talking about one man friendly businesses here but a massive organisation who are supposed to exercise control over public finances.
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