Top bureaucrat sacked for travel bill

The chairman of the Western Australian Planning Commission has been dismissed for misusing his government credit card, after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on travel over 28 months.

Gary Prattley was sent on leave after the state opposition alleged he had spent $260,000 on interstate and international travel between April 2009 and August this year.

Mental Health and Disability Minister Helen Morton, who represented Planning Minister John Day in parliament today, as only the Upper House was sitting, revealed Mr Prattley had been sacked on Tuesday.

"The view was formed that Mr Prattley's expenditure and lack of proper accounting for expenditure on his government purchasing card, considered as a whole, showed a failure to deal with public money in an accountable manner," she told parliament.