Statement on payment cards

Last updated: 31/05/2011 Add to My Bookmarks Subscribe

Cornwall Council has not spent £9 million on credit cards as suggested by recent media reports.

The Council does not use credit cards as local authorities are not allowed to have credit.  The payments were made using payment cards which work in a similar way to debit cards. 

The Council has also not spent millions of pounds on foreign travel and meals.  The figures provided in the FOI response to Daily Telegraph had  not been converted from the original currencies – producing a misleadingly high figure.  The suggestion, therefore, that we spent £114,142 for hotel costs in India for an educational exchange involving teachers from Cornish schools was not true. This amount was actually in Indian Rupees and would have been £1,645 in UK currency.

There are similar inaccuracies in the amounts highlighted for restaurant payments – with one figure of £15,640 quoted for a restaurant in Japan during another educational exchange.  This amount is in Japanese Yen and would be £118 in UK currency. 

These payment cards were originally introduced by the Government as they are a cheaper and more efficient way of paying for goods and services – saving an average of £33 per transaction.  The system is also popular with suppliers are it is much faster than submitting invoices to the Council. 

The Council currently has 509 cards in use of which 154 are allocated to schools and there are very strict financial controls in place to regulate their use.  Individual cards have a maximum limit on them – usually around £1,000 – with any payment about this limit having to be authorised by a senior member of staff.

Posted 31 May 2011