Report exposes university chiefs’ credit card use

The Australian 07 April 2017

A secret report by Ernst & Young into credit card use at Murdoch University has revealed its four most senior academics racked up almost AU$1 million (US$753,000) in expenses in two years and former vice-chancellor Richard Higgott spent an average of AU$1,800 a month on limousine rides, writes Andrew Burrell for The Australian.

The report – obtained by The Australian under Freedom of Information laws – details the high level of corporate credit card spending by Higgott and his three deputy vicechancellors at the troubled Perth institution during 2012 and 2013.

Murdoch refused to release the document until The Australian won an appeal to the West Australian Information Commissioner, arguing that the report was in the public interest as it involved the use of taxpayers’ funds. The revelations come after Western Australia’s Corruption and Crime Commission last year described Murdoch’s financial controls over corporate credit cards as “lax” and found that the parameters of card usage were “extremely broad”.
Full report on The Australian site

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