SPT’s jolly holiday

Expenses

It’s not just MPs feeling the heat over their expenses. The Herald newspaper in Scotland recently undertook a fearless exposé of the expenses incurred by senior managers and council members at Strathclyde Partnership for Transport.

The figures obtained by The Herald reveal a ‘fact finding’ trip to New York for chief executive Ron Culley and vice chairs David McLachlan and David Fagan that cost just under £8,000 in flights alone. There’s also a £3,000 bill for flowers and a trip to Prague for one senior manager that cost £1,200 (including £2.99 claimed for a guidebook).

Best of all was a jolly, sorry trip, to Manchester by three managers to visit colleagues at GMPTE, a trip that also just happened to coincide with the UEFA 2008 cup final between Glasgow Rangers and Zenit St Petersburg.

Sadly the match meant one of the party could not find a hotel in Manchester so had to stay 35-miles away in Chester, leading to a £120 claim for taxis amidst the £1,240 he claimed for his two-night trip.