DCLG opens books to public

Author: Local Government Chronicle - Aug 12, 2010

Posted in: Performance and Assessment / Devolving performance accountability to local areas / Local Government News

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.

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