According to the opposition party’s research on Government Procurement Cards (GPCs), fourteen departments spent at least £145,5 million in 2021, which is a 71.38 percent increase over the previous decade.
Rishi Sunak has been accused of failing to reign in a “culture of excessive spending” across government departments. After Labour revealed thousands of purchases made with taxpayer-funded debit cards over the past two years.
According to the opposition party’s research on Government Procurement Cards (GPCs), fourteen departments spent at least £145,5 million in 2021, a 71.38% increase from the £84.9 million spent a decade earlier.
It follows the easing of restrictions on GPCs at the start of the COVID pandemic, allowing cardholders to spend up to £20,000 per transaction and £100,000 per month across all categories.
Labor blamed the Ministry of Justice, which spent £36.9 million in 2011 and £84.9 million in 2021.
The Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office’s expenditures in 2021, at £34.4m, were 3.7 times greater than the Foreign Office and Department for International Development’s expenditures in 2001, at £9.3m.
Nine of the fourteen departments analyzed spent more in the last month of the fiscal year than in any other month, with aggregate GPC spending in March 2021 being more than two-thirds more than the monthly average for the remainder of the year.
In addition, Labour determined that there were 34,661 transactions of above £1000 among the 14 departments in 2021.
The party also identified the largest providers to departments through GPCs in 2021, including Banner Stationery (£3.3m), Amazon (£1.51m), Enterprise-Rent-A-Car (£414,785), IKEA (£237,683), Posturite Chairs (£131,652), John Lewis (£105,832), KPMG (£105,014), and Apple (£101,467).
BFS Group, which supplies meals to the Prison Service, had the most revenues at £54.9m.
Labour intends to be “tough on waste.”
Labor expressed worry over “loose controls” on GPCs and “unchecked spending sprees by various Whitehall departments at the end of each fiscal year.”
It alleged “excessive spending” on “extravagant events, expensive restaurants, high-end catering, five-star hotels, lavish gifts and hospitality, luxury furnishings and fabrics, unnecessary corporate branding, non-essential training, high-priced awayday venues, and the purchase of alcohol on the backs of taxpayers.”
Deputy leader Angela Rayner stated that the expenditures were inappropriate during a crisis in the cost of living.
She stated: “We have witnessed scandal and corruption, the wasting of billions of pounds by the current Conservative government. And no action to clean up this mess.
“These cards are a technique to circumvent standard auditing procedures. We also see big spending rises at the conclusion of the fiscal year and unjustified spending during a cost-of-living problem.
Therefore, there must be transparency and regulation about the use of these cards.
Ms. Rayner stated that her party would establish an “Office of Value for Money” to combat waste.
“Britain may be experiencing the biggest cost of living crisis in decades. But as chancellor or prime minister, Rishi Sunak has failed to rein in Whitehall’s wasteful expenditure,” she continued.
“Today’s shocking revelations lift the veil on a scandalous catalog of waste, with taxpayers’ money frittered away across every part of the government. While in the rest of the country, families are sick with worry over whether their next paycheck will cover their weekly groceries or their upcoming bills.”
Conservatives respond to Labour report
Richard Holden, minister of transport, justified the usage of the cards: “If everything had to be invoiced. It would be impossible to complete necessary tasks, as well as more expensive and bureaucratic.
“I do not believe we should add more bureaucracy, such as a Jim Hacker-style Department of Administrative Affairs to administer the other administrators, as Labour seems to propose.”
Nevertheless, he agreed with the necessity for spending transparency, citing the monthly report on card expenditures.
Mr. Holden continued, “Sunlight is an excellent disinfectant for this kind of material.” “Therefore, I believe we must remain as clear as possible regarding government spending.”
A senior Conservative source responded more forcefully to the Labour claim by stating: “Uncomfortably for Labour HQ, they have forgotten that these “civil servant credit cards” were introduced in 1997.
“In 2010, Labour spent nearly £1 billion of taxpayer funds on everything from dinners at Mr. Chu’s Chinese restaurant to five-star luxury hotels.
“The Conservatives promptly halted their ludicrous profligacy by reducing the number of cards, mandating that all expenditure be made public, and instituting limits.
“In typical fashion, Labour’s ‘great idea’ is to spend millions to build yet another quango. Fill it with thousands of bureaucrats, and provide them with golden pensions.”
