At the public expense

Higher Education. The public sector. Expenses
This is a different land, they do things differently here.

When I worked in the private sector (oh happy days, can I please come back I've sat in the naughty chair for long enough now) I claimed expenses. No problems, I claimed each month and, providing I was prompt with my submission at the beginning of the month, would usually be paid by the end of the same month. Sometimes I would have to wait 8 weeks if I missed the submission date so I had to be willing to effectively subsidise the value of the total amount for that time but, as the expense values were generous, I was making quite a lot of money on legitimate claims. At one point I had a float from my company of £500 to cover this regular outstanding value but I put it in the building society and earned some interest as I put all my expenses on one credit card (on which I also earned Airmiles). I was usually paid back before I had to pay my credit card bill. I did this for so long that I came to believe that this was how the world worked.

Then I began work for the public sector. I'm in HE now but for two years worked in another part of the public sector. Here's an example of how it's different. Some employees would often have to travel to London by rail, possibly once a month. The cost was about £35 return including tube fares depending on the time of day they travelled. Rather than pay for the ticket themselves at the station they would order them from a travel agent employed by the organisation beforehand who would charge £12 for the booking fee. In other words upping the cost by about 35%. I was amazed. 'Why' I asked 'do you not pay at the station, claim back the expenses and save the organisation huge sums of necessary expense?'
They were equally astonished at my naive question.' 'But we'd have to pay out our own money to do that and we would be poor and the children would starve and not have shoes for their feet.' 'But it's on a credit card and you'd be paid back before you have to pay out.' I countered. But they were adamant, they were not going to pay out their money to save the organisation money even though they never actually had to pay out their money. I put my wacky idea of abandoning the travel agent and their booking fees, except for exceptionally large amounts, in the suggestion box. I'm now on a witness protection scheme in the USA. Oddly that idea ended up in the round file. In about 30 secs after submission

And now for HE.

Here's some examples of how our money is spent.;
A professor two weeks ago; 'I had £2000 left in my budget at the end of the year so I went to a conference in Hawaii. Not to give a paper but because I thought it would be nice to go there.'

A lecturer; 'I was not allowed to travel 1st class by train to London, even though on a special saver fare it was 50% less than the usual 2nd class fare, because policy says we cannot travel 1st class.'

'I had to claim mileage for a 30 mile round trip to a town 6 miles away because we have to use the AA web site to determine mileage and that's how far it said it was. The finance department told me this is what I had to claim.'

'We get charged a £15 booking fee. I've just bought a £12 return fare rail ticket that cost an additional £15.It happens all the time.'

We have three free Christmas lunches year, a departmental one, a section one and funding from the University for a further one.

And so it goes.

I thank all of you not in the public sector for your great generosity and public spirited nature. I need a coffee after all this typing. Oh didn't I say - that's free too. And the bicuits.