Expenses

The Society has undertaken to publish personal expense claims of the current and future president and vice president. The practicalities mean that expense claims must be reconciled with credit card statements so publication will be approximately one month after the expense has been claimed and may not cover the precise calendar month. Some items, such as mileage expenses, may appear some time after they were incurred. We will aim to publish expenses in the first full week of each month. It should be noted that the Society may pay for travel on behalf of the president or vice president through a travel agent and that these invoices are not included in the published expense claims. It should also be noted that the published expense claims have not been audited.

All Council and committee member expense claims are made against an agreed expenses policy and scrutinised by a relevant member of staff before approval and payment. All department accounts are scrutinised quarterly and all committee expenses are accounted for through departmental reporting. Annual accounts are then audited by the Society's auditors. This audit includes random samples of all expenditure items. The Society's auditors also carry out an annual interim audit which looks at controls, procedures and systems in place.

Separate publishing of convener/vice convener out-of-pocket expenses for more than 100 committees and working parties as well as more than 50 Council members, as proposed in a motion to the Society's special general meeting, would be an onerous and time-consuming task. The Society does not have the staff resource to carry this out.