Sir John Bourn, Westminster's watchdog on government spending, is to resign, it was announced yesterday.
The news comes just days after his own £365,000 expenses bill was made public and shortly before he is due to be grilled by MPs.
Comptroller and Auditor General at the National Audit Office (NAO) since 1988, the 73-year-old, who has inspected billions of pounds of government expenditure across Whitehall, will go in January.
He said it had been a "privilege" to head up the NAO but explained he was stepping down because changes in the law meant his Auditor General's job would clash with his role regulating auditors. He did not mention the row over his own expenses bill.
In June, the Public Accounts Commission cleared him of any wrongdoing after it was revealed he had spent £336,000 on 45 trips in three years. The commission noted Sir John had travelled "first class for rail travel, business class for short-haul flights and first class for long-haul flights".
While it found "no evidence of impropriety", it did call for a "more transparent system" in processing the Auditor General's expenses. On Monday, Sir John is due to appear before the Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
The LibDems branded his travel bills of £16,500 spent on trips between April and September, paid for by taxpayers, as "absolutely shocking". Details released also showed Sir John had dined in some of London's most illustrious restaurants. Between April and September, he spent £1650 on 11 business meals. His "gigantic bills for largesse" were condemned as "incredible" by Norman Baker, the Lib Dems' Cabinet Office spokesman.
Most controversially, entertaining by defence contractors included a visit to the British Grand Prix, paid for by BAE Systems, under investigation over a Tanzanian defence order. Sir John refused to release an official document on BAE's biggest and most contentious order, the Al Yamamah defence deal with Saudi Arabia.
Sir John will be succeeded by Tim Burr, his deputy, but only once the NAO is reformed. Intriguingly, Sir John is - in theory - the only unsackable postholder in Whitehall. He was appointed for life by Margaret Thatcher, then Prime Minister, and Robert Sheldon, then Labour PAC chairman. To preserve the postholder's independence he or she can be removed only by a vote of the Commons and Lords.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article