Ex-Provost to repay just £2k of £8k expenses
A NATIONALIST Lord Provost who claimed for 23 pairs of shoes as part of an £8,000 taxpayer-funded spending spree plans to repay a quarter of the money.
Eva Bolander – who was compared to Imelda Marcos by critics – quit as Lord Provost of Glasgow at the start of this month after she came under fire for the amount she claimed on expenses.
Her purchases included £297 on underwear, £751 on ten haircuts, £479 worth of nail treatments and £66 on make-up.
She has now stated she will repay £2,000 of the £8,000 in expense claims, covering the cost of ‘personal’ items.
The figure emerged after a Freedom of Information request by the BBC-funded Local
Democracy Reporting Service. Miss Bolander, 59, will repay the cash under an agreement with Glasgow council, starting from December 17. The money will be returned to the council budget.
She said: ‘The spending I incurred to fulfil my position was within the rules, following guidelines and advice at all times.
‘However... there were items which I should have chosen not to reclaim and I gave a public commitment to repay some of the allowance claimed.
‘Following discussions, I agreed to repay a proportion, which covers any item that could be considered personal in nature, alongside a contribution to cover the costs of some of the other items I was reimbursed for.’
Her expenses claims came after the cash-strapped local authority imposed a 3 per cent rise in council tax.