Quango rents sports cars

News Reporter

Monday 2 July 2012

A HEALTH service quango that boasts of saving the NHS money has lavished a fleet of luxury sports and four-wheel-drive cars worth almost £1 million on its staff through a vehicle-leasing system.

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Helen McArdle

A BMW convertible, an Audi TT and a trio of Range Rover Evoques carrying a price tag of almost £30,000 each are among the new vehicles leased to employees of National Procurement – a branch of the NHS National Services Division.

The Scottish Government-funded department's mission statement is to "increase savings" and it is responsible for buying medical goods to supply the NHSHowever, Freedom of Information figures reveal that 40 employees – about one in every eight members of staff in the department – have been driving to and from work in jeeps, convertibles and sports cars. The lion's share of insurance, fuel, road tax and monthly rental costs is picked up by the taxpayer. One employee was leased a £27,000 Mercedes, while three other workers have been driving £23,000 S-line Audi A3 sports cars. Another employee received a £28,300 Audi TT. Since the beginning of this year, five new cars have been leased to staff, including a four-door BMW worth more than £30,500. Other leased vehicles include an Audi sports car worth more than £25,000 and three Range Rover Evoques costing up to £29,500. Staff also have access to 13 pool cars, including four Toyota Prius hybrids and a BMW. The total value of cars leased since the programme began in October 2008 works out at about £971,000, although the NHS pays for the vehicles through monthly rental charges rather than buying them outright. As of April, staff qualifying for the scheme have had to clock up a minimum of 5000 business miles during office hours. However, a source close to the department said some members of staff were making up the mileage by intentionally scheduling 80-mile round trips between its offices in Larkhall, Lanarkshire, and South Gyle in Edinburgh. The source said: "I know of a couple of managers who intentionally have staff at both sites – in some cases only one or two staff. This allows them a lease car so they can travel to each site once a week for "meetings", even though there are adequate video conferencing facilities at both locations."It's a disgrace that staff are being allowed these cars just for travelling between the two National Procurement sites, especially when there is a company pool car available which is hardly used, or staff could make use of public transport."NHS Procurement said the scheme was cost-effective as the department calculated a "fixed contribution" based on what an employee would be likely to claim in mileage if they were using their own car for work. Labour's health spokesman Jackie Baillie MSP said the NHS was subsidising staff to drive executive cars. She said: "The NHS in Scotland is suffering from severe pressures and it seems that officials have no proper sense of financial priorities."Staff who are in genuine need of transport to do their jobs is one thing, but these are status symbols for managers whose jobs are predominantly desk-based."A spokesman for NHS Procurement said: "We reimburse regular business users for part of the costs of leasing a car. They pay for private use and pay for family use. "If an employee wants a car other than the basic models, they pay the extra themselves."

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Quango rents sports cars

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