Councillors denied corporate credit cards

SIC COUNCILLORS are unlikely to get their own corporate credit cards despite the obvious temptations.

Councillor Gussie Angus floated the idea on Wednesday at the Full Council meeting. He said councillors and senior officials in other places were issued with the cards for the expenses incurred on duty and he thought perhaps they should be looked at for the SIC.

Finance chief Graham Johnston admitted he had not thought about extending SIC corporate cards to members but was happy to look at it.

Allan Wishart immediately asked for 22 application forms for him and his colleagues. Betty Fullerton was less tongue-in-cheek. She said some members travelled a lot on council business and had to use their own credit cards and wait to be reimbursed. If council officials were getting use of SIC credit cards then so should members.

Chief executive Morgan Goodlad tried to nip the plan in the bud, explaining that while corporate cards do exist, no official actually has one with their own name on it. Like councillors, they tend to use their personal ones and reclaim, he said.

The vice-convener Josie Simpson, a frequent corporate traveller, came to his senses after suddenly seeing the lurid headlines that lay in wait. “I can just see the press if I was putting it on a council credit card!”