Daily Mail
"How ironic that the prime focus of IPSA so far seems to have been on empire-building. Its budget for operating costs in 2010-11 was £6.36 million, whereas the cost of previous arrangements, under the aegis of the House of Commons Fees Office, was said to be £2 million.
IPSA’s HQ, in Portland House, was refurbished at a cost to the taxpayer of £267,000. The bill included 71 ‘visitor seats’ at £242 each, six stools for £265 each, another seven £538 chairs, £837 for a table, fourteen £465 ‘relaxer’ loungers and 25 cabinets costing £2,295 each.
A spokesman says: ‘We walked into a shell of an office and needed to equip it. There is a cost associated in doing so. We purchased a number of chairs for guests; these cost more than standard office chairs.’
While MPs lost public sympathy over the abuse of expenses, it must be galling for them to see the body brought in to impose austerity adorning itself in this way.
The political blogger Iain Dale says: ‘It’s the plushest office I’ve been in for a good long time. I dread to think what the square-foot cost and the fit-out cost of this place [is]. I’ve never been into a government office that has looked so like a big multinational company.’The organisation also shows all the signs of being over-bureaucratic, with a bizarre note in its annual accounts on climate change: ‘The need to adapt to climate change is taken into account when IPSA is designing its policies. A risk assessment will be made of how climate change could affect a policy, programme or project.’
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