Expenses and the use of corporate credit cards by mayoral appointees

Expense claims at the Greater London Authority (GLA) should be subject to random testing to assess a proportion of claims in greater detail each year, our report said. It made a number of recommendations to strengthen expenses procedures at City Hall and followed a series of Assembly meetings that examined the misuse of the GLA corporate credit card by former Deputy Mayor Ian Clement. The report makes four recommendations::

• Clarification of the role of the finance department in verifying the validity of expense claims and credit card transactions prior to authorisation by the mayor or other signatory
• The expenses section of the GLA website should provide a summary of what expenses are allowed
• Revision of the Expenses and Benefits Framework to include a clear description of the escalation process if an individual fails to comply with expenses rules, including provision for reporting repeated breaches of the rules to the Authority’s Standards Committee and,
• Consideration of a random testing programme to assess a proportion of expense claims in greater detail each year. The report also welcomes the implementation of previous Assembly recommendations to improve transparency and accountability of expenses; the publication of itemised expenses claimed by the Mayor, Assembly Members and mayoral appointees and the appointment of a Chief of Staff to manage the Mayor’s Office.

These recommendations were accepted in the Annual Governance Statement included in the GLA Statement of Accounts 2009-10.

Read the report here:

Expenses and the use of corporate credit cards by mayoral appointees PDF Expenses and the use of corporate credit cards by mayoral appointees RTF

The information used in compiling the report is available below:

Information published by the GLA in relation to Ian Clement’s use of a GLA corporate credit card PDF only