Carney made her comment on Facebook Friday after communicating with one of her former office employees who was "steamed" after hearing Wallin's first full interview since the scandal broke.
"What I didn't do was mind the shop properly," Wallin, who has already paid back roughly $38,000 in bogus travel expenses, told CBC's Peter Mansbridge. "There's a lot of paperwork particularly in government, every time you move, every time you go anywhere. Sort of more paperwork than is humanly possible to keep on top of. So I made mistakes."
The former Carney staffer said Wallin is "unfairly maligning her very competent staff," Carney wrote. "As a former owner-operator of a small business, I can say Wallin's reference to a mountain of paper would make any small business owner choke."
Carney, who wouldn't agree to an interview Friday but said she had no problem with The Vancouver Sun quoting from her post, was a member of Parliament from 1980-88 and a senator from 1990-2008.
Wallin, Patrick Brazeau and Mike Duffy, all appointed to the Senate as Conservatives by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and Liberal Mac Harb, have been at the centre of controversy over questionable expense claims related to residency and travel allowances. Carney said forms given to senators to identify their principal residence and travel costs are straightforward.
"Why is that so hard to grasp? And why do taxpayers need to spend money on a Senate audit committee?" she wrote. "If they don't know where they live and what they spend they shouldn't be appointed to the Senate!"
CANADIANS BELIEVE MPS, SENATORS CHEAT ON EXPENSES, POLL SUGGESTS
A new poll suggests Canadians overwhelmingly believe MPs and senators are cheating on their taxpayer-funded expense claims.
And an overwhelming number questioned want to be able to check up on them by requiring all parliamentarians to publicly post all their expenses online.
The Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey results come after weeks of sustained controversy over questionable living and travel expenses claimed by four senators.
While only unelected senators have been implicated in the expense scandal thus far, the poll suggests it has blackened the reputations of MPs as well. A whopping 86 per cent of respondents - including overwhelming majorities in all regions and across all age groups and party affiliations - feel it's likely that MPs and senators are claiming improper expenses. Of those, 56 per cent feel it's very likely.
The telephone survey of 1,005 Canadians is considered accurate within plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times in 20.
Some 89 per cent believe all expenses claimed by MPs and senators should be available for the public to view online.
"In public opinion terms, this is as close as you come to unanimity," said Harris-Decima chairman Allan Gregg. "Virtually everyone thinks parliamentarians are cheating. Virtually everyone want transparency. Therefore, the only way parliamentarians can convince the public that they are not cheating is to show them that they aren't."
Liberal leader Justin Trudeau has proposed online posting of MPs' expenses and regular examinations of House of Commons expenses by the auditor general. The governing Conservatives have said they support the idea.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Peter O'Neil
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