Paul Moss investigates civil service hospitality

Imagine that somebody handed a wad of cash to a public official, and that official then gave them a government contract. We would call this bribery, a straightforward case of corruption. But what if you take the civil servant to dinner, perhaps at a top London restaurant - is that okay? Last year, it emerged that Britain's head of tax collection, David Hartnett, had received hundreds of instances of hospitality from private companies. But civil servants across the board often receive free meals and other hospitality from the private sector. And now, anti-corruption campaigners have told this programme there needs to be a crackdown on this practice, as Paul Moss reports. #BBC #Bribery #PaulMoss #Radio4 #Tax #CivilServant #TransparencyInternational