B.C. Premier's office defends $475K credit card bill

[B00Mer]

B.C. Premier Christy Clark's office is defending a credit card bill that is more than double the size of her predecessor Gordon Campbell's.

Records from the Office of the Comptroller General show the Clark's office charged $475,000 in expenses to credit cards during the 2011/12 fiscal year.

Charges under Clark's tenure include several tabs for thousands of dollars at various top restaurants, such as $3,267.66 at Ferris Oyster Bar in Victoria and $2,279 at Bishops in Vancouver.

The charges also include a large number of travel expenses with airlines, hotels, plus office supplies, and more than $100,000 from communications companies Rogers and Telus.

The year before under former premier Gordon Campbell, the office's expenses totalled $205,000 and $195,000 the year before that.

Extra duties raised expenses

However a spokesperson for the Premier's office says there are three key reasons by the office's expenses were more than twice as high as under Clark's predecessor.

First, the office grew substantially when it took over intergovernmental relations last year, raising the cost of regular expenses.

Second, B.C. hosted other premiers in both Victoria and Vancouver for the Council of Federation meetings, and Clark's office footed the bill.

And third, Clark embarked on one of B.C.'s most expensive trade missions to Asia earlier this year.
Still, Jordan Bateman, the B.C. director of the the Canadian Taxpayers Federation says the bill raises red flags and the office should be under more scrutiny. The Federation wants public access to all receipts related to government spending.

"Cell phone bills of a $120,000, $140,000 in airfare — these are huge expenditures at a time when we are borrowing money to balance the books. That's not right. We need to make sure that we are restraining ourselves in every part of the public service, including the premiers office," said Bateman.

On Monday an all-party committee of B.C. MLAs that is responsible for overseeing spending at the legislature promised a major overhaul will put its financial books in order within the next six months.

The promise comes after B.C. Auditor General John Doyle delivered a scathing report last week that said the committee and its comptroller were not producing any useful financial statements or maintaining even the most basic accounting records.

source & Video : B.C. Premier's office defends $475K credit card bill - British Columbia - CBC News

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Seems Government employee'sa free wheeling with taxpayers money, from Christy Clark to the Health Minister in Alberta.There should be requirements for a more transparent billing system that makes them more accountable to the taxpayers moneythey use.

 

[Kreskin]

Someone calculated that her table had 1400 oysters in Victoria. That's a damn healthy appetite.

 

[taxslave]

Not to defend out of control spending by politicians but to make a comparison to previous Premiers or for that matter to Premiers in other provinces we need to know if others have a different method of paying some bills other than credit card. Some may even be spending more but have ways of making it look less obvious.

 

[petros]

Maybe they are trying to get AirMiles?

 

[Tonington]

Holy, that's even worse than the Alberta Health expense scandal.

 

[B00Mer]

Holy, that's even worse than the Alberta Health expense scandal.

gee only by $100,000 of tax payers money..

 

[JLM]

Not to defend out of control spending by politicians but to make a comparison to previous Premiers or for that matter to Premiers in other provinces we need to know if others have a different method of paying some bills other than credit card. Some may even be spending more but have ways of making it look less obvious.

One thing is a little puzzling....................Dixie Cup has been quite silent during all of this! :lol:

 

[damngrumpy]

Taxslave part of what you say is true they have to pay for this with something other
than a credit card. The other problem is, their spending is still out of control even,
Bev Oda is starting to look goo here. This government is finished anyway and the
last spike in its heart? Well there are two. One is the expense account, of course
the HST which keeps festering and the biggest is the pipeline they are on the wrong
side of history here. They could have done something until they limited their options
by putting a price on the environment. The environment and the economy are no
longer separate items.
I heard on radio this morning that the latest major poll shows the NDP with 49% of the
vote, Liberals down under 25% actually around 22 and the BC Tories around 19%.
The old story of the eighteen month window is showing in relevance here, if you have
less than 25% of popular vote within eighteen months of an election it is almost and
virtually impossible to turn it around barring some major event.

 

[B00Mer]

...and how much did the BC NDP sink into a hole before they got the boot.. will BC'ers every learn.. go Conservative..

BC'ers trying to protect Union jobs that don't pay ****.. Save-On-Foods Union job, starting wage $9/hr yup worth saving lol

 

[damngrumpy]

That would be even worse Boomer, the BC Conservatives are little more than flakes.
They are social conservatives. People in BC are what I call Red Tory conservatives
and Middle Road New Democrats now and that is a long way from the good ole days.
I saw some information last week that suggested if the election were held today the
NDP would win 79 of 85 seats. That was also mentioned on our local news/talk
station.
Christi is in for a rough ride and the Tories are a long way from Government.

 

[petros]

BC's politics has always been bassackwards.

 

[damngrumpy]

Petros remember BC was once called lotus land. It is a fun ride at the best of times.
Facts don't count, fears don't count, distortions of the truth don't count.
People go to the polls happy or peed off and no one cares they throw governments
out for sport. Commercials and explanations have no merit, minds are made up
and facts be damned.
This time I will support Dix, and mainly because the clowns in office lied about so
many things especially the HST, and they will not be forgiven for that. I would not
vote Tory for the reason we have Harper in office and behind that slick little smiles
lies a social conservative. Fiscal conservatives and red Tories are one thing the old
social conservative is not to be trusted

 

[grumpydigger]

Christy is just taking care of family FIRST .....those credit cards will not be there forever......LoL

 

[JLM]

BC's politics has always been bassackwards.

Yes, it's been weird. When WAC was premier, we thought he was a real assh*le, now 40 years later, there's not much doubt he was the best premier we ever had! Brilliant financial mind.

Christy is just taking care of family FIRST .....those credit cards will not be there forever......LoL

If Christy really cared about British Columbians, she's hand the reins over to Abbott!

This time I will support Dix, and mainly because the clowns in office lied about so
many things especially the HST, and they will not be forgiven for that.

Dix is just another alternative, unless he's willing to quit spending money we don't have he's not going to fix anything. Where do you suppose he's going to get the money for everyone with their hand out? All he will accomplish is making things worse for pensioners and people on fixed incomes.

 

[Tonington]

gee only by $100,000 of tax payers money..

On an annualized basis it's way more. The Alberta Health expenses were over multiple years, $350,000 in a little over three and a half years, as opposed to $475,000 in a single year by Premier Clark.

 

[JLM]

On an annualized basis it's way more. The Alberta Health expenses were over multiple years, $350,000 in a little over three and a half years, as opposed to $475,000 in a single year by Premier Clark.

Do they have different ways of keeping track?

 

[Tonington]

Do they have different ways of keeping track?

No idea. If it's anything like where I work, expenses are all on credit cards, well at least about 99% of them. People are reimbursed for their moving expenses when they are hired. Could be with cash I guess!

 

[JLM]

No idea. If it's anything like where I work, expenses are all on credit cards, well at least about 99% of them. People are reimbursed for their moving expenses when they are hired. Could be with cash I guess!

When I worked for B.C. Gov't I thought everything was fairly organized, every expense I incurred went to a project # or vote #, but thinking back there may have been designations that peons like me never had access to.

 

[Tonington]

When I worked for B.C. Gov't I thought everything was fairly organized, every expense I incurred went to a project # or vote #, but thinking back there may have been designations that peons like me never had access to.

We still expense things with purchase orders. But some things don't lend themselves well to that sort of finance. Like if the power goes out and you need a contractor pronto. Or if you're traveling, entertaining guests, etc.

But in the end, I am more accountable for what I purchase with a purchasing card than public officers of our government. Everyone loves a good spending scandal. In the end it's our money. At least my expenses are towards business and not fixing my car. That is just plain ludicrous. Those people earn enough to fix their own damn cars!

 

[JLM]

At least my expenses are towards business and not fixing my car. That is just plain ludicrous. Those people earn enough to fix their own damn cars!

Reminds me of a true story from about 27 years ago. We had a unpopular mechanical foreman in one of the districts, basically just mean to his crew, deny them their holidays when they wanted them for no real valid reason, also I think he was suspected of some theft from the job. On the other side of the coin I believe he had some tragic events in his life. Anyway out of the blue the cops showed up at the mechanical shop took the V.I.N. of a car on the hoist that the work was being charged to a vehicle belonging to B.C. Ferries, but was in fact his son's car getting a brand new transmission. Of course he was fired immediately, just a year or so away from retirement. I guess the moral of the story is if you are going to treat your employees like sh*t make sure your activities are beyong reproach. I never did hear if he was ever charged or not.