That Credit Card Bill

You cannot have missed all the press comment on the British Council’s credit card expenditure in upmarket hotels and restaurants, first class travel etc. I personally doubt whether that raised any eyebrows because everybody knows by now that this is what they do. OK, maybe they didn’t know about spending money on haircuts, Lego, Primark (oh dear) and iTunes, but it wasn’t a lot of money (only £479.92 on Lego for example, and a miserly £83.30 at The Body Shop), and we expect public servants to get away with such things. What irks me, however, is the standard British Council defence which boils down to:

1. Only a third of our funding comes from the taxpayer
2. We generate (think of a figure) in revenue for the British economy

Today’s fantasy figure is £1.2 billion, which their spokeswoman described as a return of £6 for every £1 invested by taxpayers.

The information given out by this unnamed spokeswoman is misleading. It is true that only a third of the current account in any given year is gifted by the taxpayer in the form of the FCO grant, but the rest comes mainly on a plate, and from the taxpayer. For example, a look at DFID procurement for 2009 reveals that in August that year the British Council got a contract worth £2,999,980.00 for “Managing Organisation for Community Linking Programme”. £20 short of £3 million looks like a pretty heavy management fee. In April that year the British Council also got a contract worth £31,346,646.00 from DFID for the “Global Schools Project” (which I think must be the one the BBC advertises night and day). Could it be that the British Council won this contract because they have a global network of offices, paid for by the taxpayer? Hardly a fair fight.

And as for generating £1.2 billion for the British economy, oh please. The British Council is awash with privileges including grants, closed contracts, diplomatic status, charitable status, government status, non-government status, a private for-profit company, civil service pensions, and more featherbeds than you can shake a stick at. Each year they hold out their hands for millions, spend it all and then come back the following year for more. A few years ago Lord Kinnock claimed that the British Council was “an organisation that generates £1.76 for every £1.00 given” which was of course nonsense then. Since then the spin doctors have managed to inflate Lord K’s figure by 350%. The British Council alchemy is not turning every pound into either £1.76 or £6.00, but the rather more finding a plethora of routes to taxpayers’ money, and then the rather more banal one of turning those millions into 0 pence. And along the way they find time to download iTunes, whizz around the London Eye, and play with Lego.

Huffington Post on this here. Downloadable spreadsheet here.

Comments

[Neil Robertson]

Well said as ever David. But a 'small item' that caught my eye was the £64.99 on 'shoes'? Maybe I should've sent British Council an invoice for the pair of shoes I left in Gaza in anticipation of my return during their (subsequently found to be) 'non-existent' BC £1.9m
UK DfID 'PAID' (public administration reform) project. I'm still waiting too for reimbursement of the phone bill I ran up from Gaza trying to find out from British Council in Manchester what the Hell they were playing at ... I had to pay these calls and indeed prior to my departure for the Middle East British Council staffers were trying to tell me that I should pre-finance the trip on MY credit card even though UK DfID had as is normal advanced them per diem fees. I balked at that putting my foot down and telling that it was not in my view reasonable for The British Council to expect me to pre-finance The Oslo Peace process on my Visa card ... they finally conceded the point hours before I left Scotland for this (critically sensitive) UK DfID/BC mission but I had to spend four hours in a branch of Thomas Cook's in Dundee arguing with London and Manchester about denominations of travellers cheque that the BC bureaucracy would issue - on the Friday afternoon before my departure as they had left it till the very last minute to issue tickets and currency .... On leaving my shoes in Gaza I advised the Gazans that in the event that my return was blocked by the corrupt British Council officials we had reported in 'Protected Disclosures' my shoes which were fairly new (and had belonged to my late father) should be put to good use in my absence during The Intifada! But a compensation claim is perhaps still worth a go if my shoe leather is now an allowable British Council expense? I also had to buy public administration reform manuals out of my own pocket off the project leader who they drove out within the first five days of his arrival ... he'd sold them to me willingly - as they hadn't advanced him money at all and his credit card was quickly maxing out paying for the Peace Process!

[David]

I think Neil you would have a better chance of recovering your money if you went for a whizz on the London Eye. What shoes were these, one wonders? Dancing shoes for a local "Strictly" perhaps? Stilettos for a BC drag queen? Drinking shoes for a socially challenged director? Alas, we are unlikely to be told.

[Peter]

You are right that the figures the BC quotes are nonsense. The BC's main funders are the FCO (through the core grant), DFID, and various other UK Government Departments, and the European Commission. The BC only includes the FCO grant as public money. Makes no sense at all.

The expenditure on 5 star hotels and fancy meals is really quite saddening. It suggests a lack of integrity on the part of those spending the money.

[Neil Robertson]

Maybe the Public Accounts Committee should give the British Council's CEO Martin Davidson the boot? I know a few people who wouldn't mind pre-financing that ...!

[Neil Robertson]

http://www.londonconferencevenue.co.uk/news.aspx this gives the reference to that BC 'class hotel booking service' contract 'renewed' for 3 years in July 2009 ....

[Neil Robertson]

The rot starts at the top as ever ....

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23835659-british-council-boss-defends-pound-4600-hotel-expenses.do

[Neil Robertson]

It was of course hotel expenses and first class travel that finally did for the boss of NAO (who was also The British Council's auditor) after a Private Eye campaign:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2007/oct/11/uk.Whitehall

[P Woods]

They refused my claim for a replacement suit when I sat on a newly painted patio chair at the Cultura Inglesa director's house during a visit to Chile a few years ago....

[Neil Robertson]

Wonder though if the Cultura Inglesa Director claimed successfully for a new coat of paint - or a new chair? I think we should be told!

[David]

You should have gone to Primark, Paul.