Bộ trưởng Y tế Scotland đã tự trả hóa đơn iPad £11.000 – đề nghị bởi người đóng thuế
Bộ trưởng Y tế Scotland đã tự trả tiền cho người đóng thuế một lượng lớn tới £11.000 cho việc sử dụng iPad khi ông đã đi nghỉ ở Ma-rốc. Michael Matheson, người kiếm gần £120.000 mỗi năm, đã tích hợp hóa đơn khổng lồ trên chuyến du lịch Giáng sinh và năm mới đến địa điểm nghỉ dưỡng ở phía bắc châu Phi. Ông đã bị chỉ trích vì không kiểm tra với nhân viên Công nghệ thông tin về cước phí dữ liệu di động khi đi nghỉ, mặc dù đã bị cảnh báo bởi quan chức. Tuy nhiên, Quốc hội Scotland vẫn trả các cước phí quá mức thấp cho ông, mặc dù một số nhà cung cấp có cung cấp dữ liệu không giới hạn tại châu Phi chỉ với £6 một ngày, hoặc chừng hơn £80 cho hai tuần.
#MichaelMatheson #iPad #Scotland #NghệThuậtXãHội #VấnĐềYTế
Scotland’s health secretary charged taxpayers an eye-watering £11,000 for using his iPad while on a holiday to Morocco.
Michael Matheson, who earns almost £120,000 a year, racked up the enormous bill during a Christmas and New Year trip to the north African hotspot.
The bungling minister failed to check with IT staff about data roaming charges for his jaunt, despite being warned to by officials.
But the Scottish parliament still paid the excessive charges on his behalf, even though some providers offer unlimited data in Africa for as little as £6 a day, or just over £80 for two weeks.
Mr Matheson refused to apologise for the cost of his error and walked after being quizzed over the bill
He refused to apologise for the exhorbitant bill when approached by the Mail yesterday and insisted the staggering data usage was purely for parliamentary business, during recess.
Stephen Kerr, Conservative MSP for central Scotland, said: ‘Should the taxpayer be paying this? The taxpayer should not be paying for his mistake.
‘This was a Christmas holiday and he should pay it back. Why should the taxpayer be paying for it? It’s ridiculous.’
He added: ‘The idea that this man who runs Scotland’s National Health Service is incapable of thinking for himself about the costs of roaming charges outside of Europe is unreal.
‘This is how cavalier the SNP is with public money.
The £11,000 bill was run up on a winter holiday to Morocco
‘This money is £11,000 more than has been given to Angus Council for the clean up after Storm Bebet.’
Mr Matheson ran up the £10,936 bill on his parliament iPad in Morocco in late December 2022 and into early January 2023, when he was Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport.
Mobile providers charge extra for using ‘roaming’ data abroad to send emails, make calls or stream music or films.
The charges can be avoided by switching off data roaming on a mobile phone or tablet and connecting to a free or low-cost wifi network instead.
Many mobile phone providers also offer relatively cheap deals to upgrade your data package for using data abroad.
It is not clear if the married father-of-three was on a solo trip or on holiday with his family.
Of his bill, £3,000 was paid for through normal MSP expenses after being billed as an office cost for Mr Matheson. The remainder was taken centrally from Parliament funds – damaging the amount that can be spent on upkeep of the Holyrood building and other costs.
MoneySavingExpert says people should follow ‘simple steps’ to keep roaming charges down when abroad
The Scottish Parliament issues regular reminder emails to all MSPs and staff to contact its IT team before travelling outside of Europe with devices.
One recent email issued said MSP ‘must’ let the parliament’s IT helpdesk know about overseas travel ‘so that an appropriate roaming bill can be applied’.
It goes on: ‘Failure to do so will result in expensive out of tariff charges.’
One MSP told the Mail that they only use their personal devices when travelling abroad because of concerns about data roaming charges hitting taxpayers in the pocket.
Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy said: ‘It’s absolutely scandalous that taxpayers are picking up an enormous tab for Michael Matheson’s mistake.
‘Even if we are to believe that he racked up this bill doing parliamentary and constituency work on a festive holiday in Morocco, the onus was on him to connect to the WiFi where he was staying or check with the network provider to avoid brutal roaming charges.
‘At a time when Scottish families are hard pressed, this is a scandal and demonstrates the SNP’s totally cavalier attitude to public money. The £120,00-a-year SNP health secretary should do the decent thing and repay this money out of his own pocket.’
Scottish Labour’s deputy leader Dame Jackie Baillie said: ‘What on earth could Mr Matheson have been doing to justify the public coughing up for this – the SNP is on a different planet when it comes to wasting taxpayers’ cash. The Scottish public should not have to pick up this eye-watering bill for Michael Matheson.’
When approached in the Scottish Parliament yesterday, Mr Matheson refused to apologise for the cost of his error and walked away from questions on the issue.
In a statement issued through the SNP press office, a spokesman for Mr Matheson said: ‘This was a legitimate parliamentary expense to cover constituency work while overseas.
‘Mr Matheson was not aware of the problem with his device at the time, which has since been resolved.’
Mr Matheson’s iPad had a sim card provided by EE, but it should have been switched to the Scottish Parliament’s new provider, Vodafone.
A Scottish Parliament spokesman said: ‘Substantial roaming charges were incurred by Mr Matheson on his parliamentary iPad while in Morocco at the start of this year.
‘As the member was still using the Parliament’s previous mobile provider, and hadn’t yet switched to our present contract, he incurred significant data fees over and above its ‘rest of the world’ tariff rate.
‘The Parliament challenged the company over the scale of the data fees – which totalled £10,935.74 – and over the late warning to the rising cost, but the company declined to meet or waive any of the charges.
‘On the basis that the member has assured the parliament that these costs were incurred in relation to parliamentary business and not for personal or government use, we agreed that Mr Matheson would contribute £3,000 from his office cost provision and the remainder would be paid centrally by the Parliament.’
Advice published by MoneySavingExpert says people should follow ‘simple steps’ to keep roaming charges down when abroad, including turning data roaming off, using WiFi whenever possible, and checking with the provider to see if costs are capped.
