VC dumps £15k expenses bill on taxpayers despite earning over £200k a year

Extravagant spender Vice-Chancellor Gerry McCormac has dumped a £15k expenses bill on the taxpayers, despite earning in excess of £205,000 per year. 

Information retrieved by the Observer newspaper found he spent the money between 2012 and 2014.

The expenses list includes nearly £10,000 in air fares, along with more bizarre claims such as £16.50 for thank you cards, £22.92 for access to an Edinburgh Airport departure lounge and £16.95 on a new mobile phone cover.

Recession? What recession?

In what can only be described as Gerry McCormac’s tribute to Brewster’s Millions, the greedy Vice Chancellor also splashed out £87.60 on three “deputy principal dinner meetings” and £27 on travel to a Liberal Democrat conference. Maybe he bought dinner for Nick Clegg so they could have a laugh and reminisce about tripling tuition fees?

Gerry could just bring his lunch dates to the atrium

In 2014, Gerry’s attendance at a Burns Supper in Stirling cost £40, because the University Burns Supper event apparently wasn’t good enough.  In February of last year, Gerry claimed a total of £78.61 for two “senior management team events.”

Flight costs covered by the taxpayer during the three-year period for Gerry include £2,751 for visits to Japan, £2,699 for a trip to South Florida and £4,213 for his visit to Washington.

A Uni spokesperson defended the foreign visits as necessary to develop ‘research partnerships’

A spokesman for the university told the Observer none of Mr McCormac’s expenses claims were rejected between January 1, 2012, and December 19, 2014.

They said: “As the head of a leading research-intensive university, it is a necessary and important part of the role of the principal and vice-chancellor to travel nationally and internationally, particularly to countries in which we teach, and to maintain research partnerships and develop new collaborations.

“The university has clear travel and subsistence guidelines to ensure all legitimate expenses incurred by any member of staff on university business can be claimed.”

In 2013, Gerry was also criticised for spending £138,000 of Uni funds on fixing up his luxury uni pad

Mary Senior, the Scotland Official for the University & Colleges Union, said: “People will make their own minds up about the amount of expenses university principals receive on top of their salaries – many of whom are already earning well over £200,000.

“It is disappointing the university had to be forced to provide this information by a freedom of information request, rather than just being open and transparent about it in the first place. Universities in Scotland receive over a billion pounds of public money annually, so should be at the forefront of openness and transparency including on the pay and remuneration of their principals and senior managers.”