Audit on mayor's spending

KAREN MANGNALL

MAYOR Len Brown is asking the auditor-general to rule on $17,000 of expenses charged to his Manukau City Council purchase card since October 2007.

His Pcard spending and, in particular, $638 for personal expenses has been under fire in the media and by councillors Dick Quax and Jami-Lee Ross.

Council finance director Dave Foster, who approves the mayor's Pcard spending, says 173 of the cards had been on issue to council staff and elected members until the mayor cut his up last week.

The Pcards are for "reasonable" council-related expenses only. If a cardholder "inadvertently" uses it for personal spending, the money must be repaid, he says.

Since getting his Pcard in October 2007 Mr Brown has spent $16,772. Of that $9520 is council-specific, $7456 mayoral and $638 on personal items since reimbursed.

Over 25 months that breaks down into 15 coffees, 36 lunches, 25 dinners, 10 occasions entertaining and 22 other items.

Mr Foster says that breakdown is done as part of his regular checks for "patterns of appropriate spending".

It amounts to a coffee every second month, a dinner every month and around one and a half lunches a month.

"We're talking 25 months, we're talking about the mayor of the second largest city in the country and I will defend my judgement in terms of signing them off as appropriate," Mr Foster says.

"I have no alarm bells ringing in my head about this."

The $638 in personal items all repaid by Mr Brown are: $59 for a ham, $316 for a hotel room, $148 for a mini stereo and $115 in groceries.

Mr Foster says the stereo and hotel were two cases where the mayor "inadvertently" used his Pcard.

"We're not saying that is acceptable but if it were an employee we would have a word and we have had a word with the mayor."

Mr Brown bought the grocery items for council use but chose to reimburse the money when he couldn't produce a GST receipt.

The mayor used his Pcard to buy the ham because he didn't have his own credit card with him.

Mr Foster says that expense has been reimbursed twice because the council cashiers incorrectly credited the first repayment to the mayor's rates account instead of his Pcard.

Two mayoral taxi fares are also being reviewed as to whether they're personal or council-related expenses.

Chief executive Leigh Auton says he's confident the council has "robust processes" to control and monitor Pcard spending.

But Mr Ross and Mr Quax say the mayor has many times "ignored or disregarded" the requirement to provide dockets and GST receipts for Pcard spending.

The latest Audit New Zealand check raised 25 queries about backup documents, including 13 for the mayor.

Mr Foster says the council was already reviewing Pcard spending as part of its regular internal and external audits before the media attention on mayoral expenses.

Issues under review include whether to keep the provision for a cardholder who's lost a docket or GST receipt to be able to sign a declaration affirming that the spending was council-related.

- © Fairfax NZ News