As England's chief investigator into Whitehall waste and extravagance, Sir John Bourn, the comptroller and auditor general, monitors billions of pounds of government expenditure and private contracts from business to run state services every year...

Yesterday, in an unprecedented move for "open government", the National Audit Office (NAO) volunteered details of all Sir John's restaurant bills since 2004, the full cost of all his foreign trips and details of reciprocal entertaining he has received in the past six months from large accounting firms and leading government contractors who do business with his office.

The total travel bill for him, his secretary and, on 22 occasions, his wife, is more than £365,000 for the past three years. Over the same period he has run up a meal account approaching £27,000.