Almost 20k government credit cards are frozen amid rocketing spending by mandarins

ALMOST 20,000 government credit cards were frozen last night amid rocketing spending by mandarins.

Holders of procurement cards — allowing civil servants to spend without ministerial oversight — will have to reapply.

Pat McFadden, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, speaking to the media.
Alamy

Cabinet Office boss Pat McFadden said: ‘Only officials for whom it is essential should have a card’[/caption]

If they fail the test, cards will be cancelled before April.

Spending on the cards has soared 300 per cent in four years, topping £675million last year.

The Sun on Sunday told how £700 had been spent in October 2023 at a shop selling cardboard cutouts of celebs.

The Foreign Office also spent £2,493 at a shoe shop in Barbados.

 Another £965 had been racked up at a bowling club in Toronto, Canada, in January 2023.

Cabinet Office boss Pat McFadden said: “Only officials for whom it is essential should have a card.”

Tighter limits have also been announced, with the maximum spend for hospitality slashed from £2,500 to £500.

Anything over that amount needs a boss’s approval.

Geri Halliwell lifesize cardboard cutout in Union Jack dress.
The move comes as The Sun on Sunday revealed civil servants blew nearly £700 of taxpayer cash at a celeb cutouts shop


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