Why so slow to confess? – updated

Why are the MPs so slow to confess they misued their credit cards?

Thanks to the media who used the Official Information Act to question spending on minsiterial credit cards, all expenditure on ministerial credit cards has just been revealed.

As I type reporters are rifling through nine boxes of records but so far only Shane Jones and Chris Carter have confessed they used public fund for private purchases.

Mis-spending public money was wrong, not fronting up and repaying the money when they knew it was about to become public is stupid.

UPDATE:

10.15AM: Former Labour Minister Chris Carter records show he spent $607.79 on kitchenware on a 2003 trip to London that was posted back to New Zealand.

After details of his kitchenware purchase were posted on Stuff this morning, Mr Carter phoned Fairfax to defend the payment and said the purchase from Politico’s of London was in fact for Labour Party posters for his office and Labour party mugs.  There had never been any suggestion from Ministerial Services officials that the spending was outside the rules.

I find spending public money on party purchases even worse than spending it on private ones.