CardPaymentsover500.xls
If I've managed the technical stuff properly, you should be able to open this Excel file and read for yourself the details of Cornwall Council's credit card spending.
I suspect that once the dust has settled, and everything is in the same currency, it will be expenditure on restaurants and hotels for staff and Cabinet members rather than computer games (possibly for children's homes?) which will take the most explaining. But I'd be grateful if eagle-eyed readers would comment with anything they think looks particularly dodgy.
Meanwhile I'm wearing myself out thinking up new questions: how many credit cards has the council issued, and to whom? Who signs off on them? Why are some utility bills settled this way, rather than (the usually cost-saving) direct debit?
I'm particularly curious to know how many staff have been lost from the finance department in the past two years? In the long run, good accountants save you more than they cost.
(Cornwall Council told me this afternoon that its own original Excel file, which the council itself issued to the Daily Telegraph last week, contained confidential details of some court cases which potentially identify vulnerable children. I therefore agreed to the council's request to take down the spreadsheet while the council redacted this information and supplied me with a "clean" version - hopefully in all the correct currencies - and which does not breach any court orders. I'm still waiting for the council version, but have myself edited out all details of where the cards were used in court cases. I will post the council's spreadsheet when it finally arrives.)
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