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last christmas, scotland's health secretary michael matheson went on a week—long holiday to morocco. he brought along his ipad, which was issued by parliament, and while he was there he racked up a data roaming bill of almost £11,000. this is a breakdown of his ee usage, which was released by parliament, and it shows that he used more than six gigabytes of data while on that trip. he assured staff that the ipad was being used for parliamentary business, and of that business the parliament said that they would cover the bill, but that £3,000 should come out of the expenses budget ...

State capitol to ask the head of the air resources board. >> i have the cnn news here for mary nichols. after an hour after waiting, we get sorry, no interview. >> it's been a difficult situation for all of us. i can't go any further than that. >> reporter: difficult why? >> because of the circumstances surrounding this. i'm sorry. that's all i've been allowed to tell you. >> reporter: the agencies did have to defend the spending to lawmakers. the vehicles, according to the transportation department, were part of a normal fleet turnover system. as for the desks and other office furniture, the ...

Contract provider. >> reporter: state contracts, state workers get a $7,000 desk? state assembly members, audra and hector, a republican and democrat are on the oversight committee that brought the spending to light. >> it's an insult to folks having to make tough choices in their own families and own small businesses. >> reporter: the problem is what to do about it. it seems government employees are virtually impossible to discipline, let alone fire, and lawmakers don't even have direct authority over many state agencies. so they're exasperated. >> we can embarrass them into changing policies...