Ministers are locked in an extraordinary power battle with Britain’s most senior civil servant over the scandal of taxpayer-funded credit cards.Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell is being blamed by key members of the Government for blocking moves to reveal the true extent of spending on the cards, which are given to officials to pay for their ‘expenses’.Ministers fear a cloak of secrecy is being used to conceal widespread abuse of the £1 billion of public money spent on the cards every year. Some officials have already been caught using them for personal items such as hamburgers or supermarket shopping trips – but the real number of culprits is suspected to be far higher.About 140,000 Government Procurement Cards (GPC) are in circulation, and any bills lower than £1,000 a month are not routinely audited.Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2025760/Fury-taxpayer-gold-card-cover-Ministers-blame-head-Civil-Service-blocking-exposure-abuse.html#ixzz1UzkooEa4