By Vivienne Russell
12 August 2010
The Department for Communities and Local Government has today published details of all last year’s spending on goods and service over £500.
Details of the £314m spent by the DCLG and its arm’s-length bodies in 2009/10 can be found on the department’s website. It breaks down into 1,900 separate items of expenditure, including £635,000 on taxis and cars and almost £310,000 on catering and food. The figures also reveal that DCLG spent £16m on marketing, advertising, promotion and events.
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said the decision to publish made the department a ‘trailblazer’ within Whitehall and ahead of local government itself.
He said: ‘Greater openness in spending is the best way to root out waste, spot duplication and increase value for money. That is why I have been asking councils to “show me the money” so local taxpayers can see where their hard-earned cash is going.
‘Now it’s our turn. I don’t believe in one rule for councils
and one for this department. Central government spends billions of pounds every
year and transparency at this level of spending is just as important.'
The communities secretary reiterated his plea for an ‘armyof armchair auditors' to pick over public spending details. In a letter
sent to councils in June he said they should begin to publish details of their
own spending above £500 from September and all spending data should be online
by January 2011.
Twentyeight councils have already done this, including Leicestershire County
Council, Oxford City Council and the London boroughs of Islington, Barnet and
Hammersmith and Fulham.