£1 BILLION credit card spree by civil servants: How Whitehall mandarins spent your money on gourmet meals and fine wines...

Civil servants put £1.1billion on taxpayer-funded credit cards last year despite David Cameron’s pledge to curb their use.

More than 137,000 Whitehall officials, quangocrats and town hall chiefs used the cards to splash out on plush hotels, gourmet meals and fine wines.

The bill for 2012-2013 was four times that of 2002. It was also no lower than in Labour’s last year in power – even though the number of civil servants has fallen.

The money spent on the ‘government procurement cards’ would have paid for 52,000 new nurses.

Officials at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport signed off £927 on a single picture frame and the Planning Inspectorate spent £646 on a chair.

Home Office staff spent £1,655 on a stay at the luxury Hilton Rose Hall resort and spa in Jamaica’s Montego Bay.

Another £10,000 a month was spent by the Department for Education on a staff rewards scheme. Full story...

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