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Pinko excuses – 101 – Blame the workers

by Whaleoil on August 15, 2010

Why is I that the first thing pinkos do when caught with their hand in the rate/tax-payers till is to blame the staff. Here was me thinking that they were for the the workers not agin them.

Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee has had to pay back more than $400 after it was found he double-dipped on hotel and lunch expenses.

The double-dipping, blamed on a staff error, was discovered only after the Herald on Sunday requested Lee’s council expenses and credit card spending.

It revealed that Lee paid a $358.70 bill from the Greymouth Kingsgate hotel in February 2008, and $65.50 for lunch at Ponsonby GPK in September last year, using his ratepayer-funded credit card.

He also signed off an expense form for reimbursement for the Kingsgate and GPK bills. The money was paid into his bank account.

Lee told the Herald on Sunday it was an administration error made by a council staff member.

Yeah I just bet it was an administrative error by staff. For a start, how come he had the receipts to submit again, where did the personal statement come from to suppport the receipts? Why do pinkos die i the ditch for such tedious amounts?

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  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1201173949 petal

    Hmmm. Mistakes do happen Cam. Hardly a picture of systemic abuse like Slapper Len, is it? The fact that HOS even filled space with it was to recoup the wasted time of asking for the receipts and spending time looking through them in the first place. Must be fun to be a “journo” and be told to dig through some mundane idiot’s expense claims for a story.

    There will be bigger fish to fry and better stories to tell.

    We can but hope.

  • Pingback: Tweets that mention Pinko excuses – 101 – Blame the workers -- Topsy.com

  • workingman

    Over on Yahoo where this is reported there is an interesting comment by ‘Chippee’.

    http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/7763450/mike-lee-pays-back-erroneous-claim/

    Chippee says “Four hundred dollars.How low has this country fallen.Has this man actually been forced to repay this amount or is he grandstanding and trying to dine out on his expressed integrity? Time this National gvt went. By its tawdry example its turning NZ into a performing circus.Vote them out.”

    I think he is slightly confused about who Mike Lee is.

  • jimmie

    Nah this is dodgy. You don’t have to be Einstein to know that if you pay for something with a council credit card you don’t need to be reimbursed. Reimbursement is only applicable if you spent your own personal money.

    He’s either so dumb to not know this or a trougher out to get all he can (or maybe both?)

  • hagues

    “He also signed off an expense form for reim­burse­ment…..
    Lee told the Her­ald on Sun­day it was an admin­is­tra­tion error made by a coun­cil staff member.”

    So he signs a form claiming he paid for this out of his own pocket and required reimbursement and then blames someone else! Dick.

  • peterwn

    Assuming the $400 was ‘once off’ and everything else is OK, then his ‘staff error’ reason washes with me, even though I am no fan of the left. OK, he signed off something which had he thought about it was incorrect – he was not going to pick through a schedule prepared by staff with a fine tooth comb.

    It is like a blooper I had to deal with once. Contractor sent in a bill for about double the tendered price. Tendered price was based on approximate quantities supplied to tenderers but contractor is paid for work actually done at tendered unit rates. Someone in the office made a mistake scaling off plans – he scaled 100 metres whereas it should have been 200 etc. There was no option but to ‘fess up to the big boss and pay the contractor as billed.

  • hagues

    peterwn “he was not going to pick through a schedule prepared by staff with a fine tooth comb.”

    But what you are forgetting is that he has a council paid credit card which is used for his council related expenses. So he is hardly going to have a schedule full of numerous expense claims. Further, where do you think the staff member gets the info to put on the claim form? From him handing over the receipts saying he needs reimbursement for the expense. Now I’m not going to say that this is such a big deal, if it is an honest one off mistake. But its HIS mistake, HE signed claimed the expense, HE signed the form, the buck stops with HIM. Its the trying to blame someone else that really pisses me off.

  • robf

    $400 people. Do they still go through people’s rubbish? Over this whole expense thing why don’t we just give them an expense budget, set by an independent 3rd party if there is such a thing, that they can spend on whatever they like. I am sure MP’s have something similar an allowance that they can spend on whatever without receipts. At least limit the damage.