Scottish Government credit card transactions: FOI release

Information requested

I’m seeing the Scottish Government are saying they’re having to make millions in cuts for the next year and that there’s no money. I want to know the following:

1. The highest Scottish Government credit card transaction on record in 2023/24 and the 2024/25 so far.

By credit card transaction I’m talking about any Scottish Government credit card that has been used for a department or cab sec or minister, but specifically the highest/most expensive payment regardless of which card it was.  There must be a record of all purchases the Scottish Government has made using a credit card. So I’m wanting to know what the highest transaction/payment amount was in the last two financial years. Tell me what each purchase was for, when it was made and who/which department it was for.

Response

Spend data has been downloaded from the Electronic Payment Card system (ePC), the data has been filtered to search for the 2 highest transactions and is split into 2 separate card schemes.

Card scheme 1 is for the ePC ‘embedded scheme’, scheme 2 is for the ePC ‘physical scheme’. 

The ePC ‘embedded scheme’ is a card scheme directly linked to the Scottish Government purchasing system. A range of contracted goods and services. Transactions for nominated suppliers are raised using the embedded ePC.

The ePC ‘physical scheme’ is a card scheme for cards held by nominated Scottish Government employees.

ePC Embedded Scheme

Transaction 1

Year – 23/24

27/06/2023 – £92,030.48 - Directorate for Digital

The purchase was for the annual software renewal of Elasticsearch functionality. The functionality allows the ability to index, process and query vast quantities of data and allows The Scottish Government to answer varied requests from across the organisation.

Transaction 2

Year – 24/25

10/06/2024 – £77,186.47 - Directorate for Digital

The purchase was for network support licences on behalf of The Scottish Government.

ePC Physical Scheme

Transaction 1

Year - 23/24

02/08/2023 – £29,744.88 - Directorate for Corporate Transformation & Workplace

The purchase was for Scottish Government Music Licence to cover 5 Scottish Government sites. The licence allows to play music within Scottish Government premises. The licence covers the main buildings to allow music to be played in conference rooms etc. It also covers Scottish Government if music is played on radios in kitchens etc. The licence fee is determined by the number of people who could hear it, and the size of the room (m²).

Year - 24/25
20/06/2024 – £7,997.64 - Directorate for Communications & Ministerial Support

The purchase was for a Canva subscription, Canva is a graphic design platform that provides tools for creating social media graphics, presentations, promotional merchandise and websites.

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