More than £800,000 was spent on Welsh Government credit cards in 2021-22 — including almost £8,000 at a top restaurant. The newly released figures also show thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money went towards luxury hotels.
In total the 12 months up to April 2022 saw a spend of £821,871.38 across more than 6,000 payments by civil servants. They used procurement cards to spend £7,948.86 at Zou Zou's — an acclaimed New York City restaurant based at the five-star hotel Pendry Manhattan West — and £4,956.49 at the Smith & Wollensky steakhouse in Manhattan. A Welsh Government spokesman said both payments were for St David's Day events promoting Wales.
By far the highest monthly total came in March — the final month of the financial year — which saw £155,354.49 in payments. That compares to a monthly average of £58,215.14 across the rest of the year.
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Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies said: “Hardworking Welsh taxpayers will be outraged to learn that £5,000 of their money was spent in a lavish steakhouse... Welsh Government procurement cards are a privilege to be used only when essential. With very little information given for each purchase, we are all left to wonder what it was all for."
A Welsh Government spokesman told WalesOnline the New York steakhouse expenses were for a St David's Day reception attended by 40 United Nations ambassadors. He said the event included Penderyn whisky-tasting as part of a campaign to promote Welsh products. The Zou Zou's reception was a St David’s Day event featuring business, cultural and diaspora networks, he added.
The cards covered £2,263.20 in one month for "travel and subsistence" at Newport's five-star Celtic Manor hotel, £5,028 worth of training at the London School Of Mediation, and £491.51 for Amazon Prime subscriptions. Various four-star hotels are also named in the document.
Mr RT Davies said: "There has been no explanation as to why it has taken Labour until now to release this data, and its late publication is in response to considerable Welsh Conservatives pressure. The UK Conservative Government publishes their spending monthly, yet Labour in Wales feel it is acceptable keep our taxpayers waiting more than 15 months. Following criticism for their questionable spending in previous years, you’d think Labour would want to provide hardworking Welsh taxpayers with the transparency they deserve."
The Welsh Conservative leader also criticised the outlay of more than £6,500 on printing in Canada as "deeply concerning". But a spokesman for the permanent secretary of the Welsh Government said the costs were from a Welsh food and drink marketing campaign across Canada that started on St David’s Day and continued through March.
The spokesman added: "A total of £821,871 was spent on procurement cards in 2021-22. This includes expenditure on fuelling and maintaining the fisheries protection vehicles, renewal of software licences, exhibitions and events, and health and safety-related expenditure. We have very rigorous processes in place to monitor and control this spend. All transactions are reviewed and require approval by senior managers and all purchases are subject to regular internal audit. Transparency is important and expenditure for 2022/23 will be released quarterly.”
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