Criminal Abuse Of Taxpayers’ Money

The government and its employees have grown used to treating our money as their own, and who can use HM Revenue and Customs, the VAT man, council tax and fuel duty – all backed by the threat of prison for non-payers – to make sure they keep getting it.
More than 140,000 ‘procurement cards’ – credit cards embossed with the words HM Government – have been handed out to staff, who are using them to spend more than £1 billion of our money every year.
Cards have been used in karaoke bars, pizza parlours, pubs, wine merchants and amusement parks.
The delusion that governments have money, and that it belongs to nobody, is widespread among those who are employed in the public sector.
The so-called ‘procurement card’ system is at least as scandalous as the MPs expenses disgrace.
The criminal law, which was used to extort this cash from us in the first place, may well be needed to punish its abuse.