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Cornwall Council admits credit cards data blunder | |
(about 2 hours later) | |
Cornwall Council has admitted giving out the wrong figures for its credit card bills which led to claims of lavish spending on travel and hotels. | |
It told the Daily Telegraph it had spent nearly £9m on credit cards since 2008, including on overseas travel. | |
But the council said it had not checked the figures before releasing them, which were "at least" £1.3m less. | |
Among the figures was £114,142 for hotels in India, which was actually in rupees, and should have been £1,645. | |
The figures, given to the newspaper in a Freedom of Information request, were published on Saturday. | |
They suggested >Cornwall's total spend was £8,973,444, higher than any other UK local authority. | |
The bills included £1.14m for hotels and £81,000 on hospitality and expenses. | |
Opposition Liberal Democrats called it a scandal. | |
But after the article was published, the Conservative-Independent controlled council admitted some of the figures which it gave to the newspaper were wrong. | |
Japanese restaurant | |
It is now checking all the figures. | |
It said the £114,142 figure given for hotel costs in India for an educational exchange involving teachers from Cornish schools was mistakenly not converted from rupees. | |
There were 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 was in yen and would be about £118 sterling. | |
Other figures, including more than £650,000 on a hotel in Bangkok, were also being scrutinised. | |
The council said: "We are still checking these figures but so far estimate that at least £1.3m of the costs highlighted for overseas travel and hotels are wrong." | |
Council leader Alec Robertson said: "While we are committed to being open and transparent, this incident shows the importance of analysing raw data carefully and responsibly. | |
"Unfortunately the deadline set by the newspaper meant that we were unable to check all the figures before the article was published." | |
The council said it told the journalist the figures were inaccurate. | |
"They did not give us the time to provide them with the accurate information," he said. | |
The newspaper said it had given the council three days "to justify the expenditure". |
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