£60,000 spent by Wiltshire Council on Amazon in one year

Corporate records of credit card spending revealed

Wiltshire Council spent almost £60,000 on Amazon in one year, according to corporate records of credit card spending.

Pandora, Disney+, PureGym, Smyths Toys and Thermae Bath Spa were also on the list of sellers.

Transaction data shows that £628,163.90 was spent in total in the year to September 2022, which is the most recent full year of publicly available data.

Of this amount, £58,227.89 was spent on Amazon.

During the year under review, the largest single transaction made by Wiltshire Council was £20,700 at Aldi on 20 July 2023 and a total of £6,440.20 was spent on Tesco gift cards.

The most expensive accommodation booking that year cost the council £6,282.

£34,568 was spent on UK Visas and Immigration, the Home Office division responsible for the visa system.

These transactions are typical for local authorities to help resettle refugees.

Other purchases published in the datasets are considered official business, which includes the purchase of goods and services for the operation of the local authority.

Cardholders included in the data have a reference number but their names have been redacted.

Details of Wiltshire Council’s corporate credit card spending are published by the local authority on its website.

Cllr Nick Botterill, cabinet member for finance, said:

“As a local authority we offer a variety of services where employees may need to use a corporate credit card to purchase goods or services.

“This is to enable the provision of services and is not ‘spent’ for personal benefit which is not permitted under any circumstances.

“We have strict procedures and checks in place to ensure corporate credit cards are used appropriately.”

According to the council, goods from Amazon are occasionally purchased when unique items are required that cannot be supplied under an established contract.

For example, assets to set up care leavers for independent living.

This type of transaction would fall within Wiltshire Council’s role as “corporate parent”.

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