He paid back about $5,400 after the Canadian Taxpayers Federation exposed the expenses through a freedom of information request — the previous board chair had expensed only $434 in three years.
Then came the questions about Alberta Premier Alison Redford’s own expenses.
She was elected in April but has taken seven international trips this year, incurring a tab of $267,000.
On the heels of these mini-scandals — and a ballooning deficit forecast to reach $3-billion after declining oil prices and fewer land lease sales take a chunk out of the province’s revenues — Ms. Redford announced a sweeping policy change on expenses this week. All government MLAs, cabinet ministers and their deputies and as many as 400 public servants will be required to put all their expenses online every two months. The new policy insists on economy flights for short trips and limits on liquor purchases with public money.
“Our policy places Alberta at the head of the pack, the transparency leader in Canadian government reporting, including every province and the federal government,” she told reporters on Wednesday.
Even the Canadian Taxpayers Federation was broadly supportive of the new guidelines. However, they won’t apply to agencies, boards or committees, such as the University of Calgary and the Alberta Health Services boards. Critics also contend the policy will do little to battle a culture of entitlement in a politicized bureaucracy grown complacent under 41-years of single-party rule.
Although the government made no move to enshrine the new policy in legislation, Ms. Redford said she expected other quasi-government bodies to follow suit.
“I’ve been very clear with respect to my expectations of these boards and commissions, and also to members of the public, that we expect people to be held to a higher standard. And I think as you monitor the implementation of this policy, you’ll see some very good success,” she said.
These problems are not unique to Alberta: Public expense policies have long come under scrutiny, said Duane Bratt, a policy studies professor at Mount Royal University. The MP expense scandal in the U.K., for example, enraged the electorate several years ago when elected officials charged personal items to taxpayers, including the cleaning of a moat surrounding a country home.
“[This is not] unique to conservative culture in Alberta. What makes it unique is the nature of long-lasting rule in Alberta,” he said. “Because the Tories have been in power so long, every member of a board is a Tory appointee…You don’t have those counter-balancing features you would have with one party coming in and one party coming out.”
Tory supporters have been hand-picked for positions of power for so long that the line between the government and the civil service has blurred, said Raj Sherman, leader of the Alberta Liberal Party.
In addition to his expense tab, for example, Mr. Merali a long-time Tory supporter, received $1-million in severance before he left a previous health board to work in Ontario. There he was implicated in the eHealth spending scandal before returning to Alberta to be hired as the controller of Alberta’s Treasury Board, and then as chief financial officer for Alberta Health Services.
“The people in these positions should not have any political affiliation whatsoever,” Dr. Sherman said.
When Mr. Merali’s expenses between 2005 and 2008 were exposed, he left his position and the government announced a forensic audit into the official’s expenses and those of the old health region.
On Wednesday, the premier said the new expense policy was months in the making and had nothing to do with the recent expense scandals. Further, she added the public scrutiny proved that the system was working, even though Mr. Merali’s expenses came to light after a freedom of information request submitted by the CBC.
“They were shamed into making these decisions,” Dr. Sherman said.
Original Article
Source: national post
Author: Jen Gerson
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