The Senate’s standing committee on internal economy Thursday recommended no further penalty, beyond returning the money they took, for three senators who had made inappropriate housing allowance claims. The committee also recommended dispensing with the traditional honour system in handling accounts.
All told, this is the absolute minimum the Senate could do to salvage some shred of integrity. If Senators think this bit of contrition is enough they still haven’t got the message. This will only fuel demands for a fuller, more transparent public accounting of what they do with our money.
“The credibility of the Senate has been attacked and has been diminished,” said Liberal Senate Leader James Cowan, following the committee’s report. “None of this is good news.”
The http://www.parl.gc.ca/SenCommitteeBusiness/CommitteeHome.aspx?parl=41&ses=1&Language=E&comm_id=9 reviewed detailed reports from the consultant Deloitte showing senators Patrick Brazeau, Mike Duffy and Mac Harb had each claimed thousands of dollars in public money to support secondary homes in Ottawa because their primary residence was supposedly more than 100 kilometres from Parliament Hill.
In fact, Harb and Duffy lived in Ottawa while Brazeau resided in nearby Gatineau. With exquisite precision, citing evidence such as cellphone records, the consultant found Brazeau spent only a fraction of his time at his supposed residence, in far away Maniwaki, Que. Likewise for Duffy’s stay at the Prince Edward Island home he claimed as his primary residence and Harb’s supposed home in Westmeath, more than 100 km northwest of Ottawa.
Duffy has already repaid the $90,000 he improperly received for his housing allowance. And the committee recommended the others do likewise, with Brazeau owing about $48,000 and Harb $51,000. Not content with even the modest penalty of repayment, Harb served notice he would fight it in court.
The reason he can do so and actually have some hope of success is that the rules on this were unclear. As the consultant put it: “a definition of primary residence did not appear in Senate policy instruments.”
That’s since been fixed, and the committee on internal economy Thursday had other recommendations for tightening the free spending system. For example, senators should henceforth provide a specific purpose if going on a taxpayer funded trip. They’ll need to log mileage to be reimbursed for road travel, and receipts to cover taxi fares. And they won’t be able to claim a work per diem when they aren’t on Senate business.
In short, senators would finally be subject to basic accounting rules long familiar to almost every Canadian.
“There’s no more of the honour system around this place,” said Conservative Senate Leader Marjory LeBreton. “When senators put in their expense accounts, and sign their name to it, it has to be accompanied by the appropriate receipt.”
Evidently, by Senate standards, this constitutes major reform. Canadians can be forgiven for not cheering.
Original Article
Source: thestar.com
Author: Editorial
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