Andrew Walker-Who?

Andrew Walker is the man who since 1977 or 1997 depending on which newspaper you read has “run” the Fees Office for MPs expenses; he is a civil servant earning £125,000 per year He also used to be HR director at the Inland Revenue, which is perfect training to administer a multi million pound expenses office and handling complex tax and monetary issues.

He got the job at Parliament without any background in financial administration. His degree was in ancient Eastern studies, according to the Telegraph.

According to records in Hansard, Walker was due to complete an accountancy qualification last year, and until that point was being assisted by "appropriately qualified and experienced staff" in the office.

Oh yes this is the man who “rubber stamped” those MPs claims for moats, duck houses, manure, light bulbs, flowers, fake beams, cleaning, gardening, wide screen TVs and porn films.

Last year the man in charge of checking MPs’ expenses declared that he had virtually no ability to scrutinise their claims beyond a “common sense” test. Andrew Walker, the Commons resources director, said that responsibility for policing expenses lay with voters; they could eject an MP from Parliament if he or she had been exploiting the system.

“There is an ultimate responsibility for the member because of the constitutional position. There are limits . . . to which I or my staff can look beyond the claims and the information we receive. Therefore, for the most part we don’t walk into constituency offices. "What we do check is that the original claim is sensible.”

He is quite good at defending MPs-- 8 February 2008

Journalists should not be told exactly what MPs claim on expenses in case it affects their ability to do their job and damages British democracy, the Information Tribunal heard yesterday.

Andrew Walker, head of the House of Commons Fees Office, said that such scrutiny into MPs' lives, such as finding out how much MPs spend on phone bills, improvements on their second homes and hotel bills, would “discourage able people from entering politics”.

He said: “If MPs spend all their time having to defend why they had changed this avocado suite to a white one when it was only ten years old…they are not spending time working for their constituents.

“My view is that it has gone far enough and is intrusion into members’ private lives.”

One of the definitions of a civil servant is “The term civil service has two distinct meanings: * Branch of governmental service in which individuals are hired on the basis of merit which is proven by the use of competitive examinations. * Body of employees in any government agency, except the military.”


Back in May this year Scotland Yard were preparing to send in officers to quiz workers in the Fees office about the rules governing claims.

Have you heard anything about the outcome?

I am not going into detail about the ‘flipping, and designated homes’ because to be honest it is boring, and it seems that even if you are caught the only punishment you get is to make a half hearted apology to the House of Commons and a seat in the House of Lords.

I suppose the point of this post is not to absolve MPs from the full fury of the public, they deserve it, but there are always two sides to any story and this side is about a Civil Servant who has been in the same post for 32 or 12 years depending on which newspaper you read , who isn’t qualified, who doesn’t have a voice, or he would have said something to someone about the “help yourself” expenses rules.

A man who thinks that it is the voter’s fault that the expenses thing happened, and who doesn’t think that the public has a right to know.

A man whose idea of a “common sense test” is to allow all and every claim that floats through his office, and has no idea of audits or value for money.

Yes the MPs are to blame for their part in this debacle, but isn’t Mr Walker at least morally to blame for his lack of action over 32 years of “service”?

And I wonder what expenses he claims?

Still, even if he does go he will have a nice pension to look forward to.

Post amended on 21st october 2009 to satisfy a Numpty

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