Stuff’s new game of spot the funny numbers is entertaining.
They’ve got copies of all the ministerial credit card receipts released under the OIA and are inviting readers to help them spot irregularities.
But it pays not to get too excited too soon because large amounts don’t necessarily mean anything’s amiss.
A six figure bill with sums of 167, 310 and 10,000 for dinner for a ministerial party (page 47) on Steve Chadwick”s card might look like it’s worth a question.
Except it’s in Chilean pesos and if an online calculator is to be believed $167,310 is only $NZ449. She ought to have had reciepts but the sum once converted probably isn’t a lot for a meal for several people.
Homepaddock 
As a taxpayer, H P, it is a whole lot worse to me
So much Of the Ministerial card spending is unsupported by documentation that would be required in the private sector and indicates to me a cavalier attitude to any legitimizing explanation ever being easily discovered by the audit process.
It is so rare to not be asked “do you require a GST invoice with that” for even the most minor purchases
I mean how long to get the GST receipt and write say, “self, secretary and 3 members of xxx delegation on it”. far too many of the documents are accompanied by the inadequate eftpos stub alone and then a plea from the audit/check person to rectify the lack of information.
It strikes me that they behaved as if there would never be any light of public scrutiny played on any of it.
As to the case of Mayor Brown on a mayoral salary around 150 thousand to be so often buying a single coffee (allegedly) and he is a Lawyer representing one of, if not the most seriously economically challenged population groups in the country.
“Unbelievable”
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