The Senate Internal Economy Committee, which has been accused of interfering with the Senate’s administration, finalized plans last week to create the new, separate Internal Economy Subcommittee to handle audits, as the Senate expenses scandal continues to unfold on Parliament Hill. Previously, the Senate Internal Economy’s steering subcommittee acted both as the executive subcommittee and the subcommittee overseeing audits.
Conservative Senator David Tkachuk, chair of the Senate Internal Economy Committee, said Senators on the steering subcommittee were uncomfortable playing both roles. He said plans to discuss creating a separate audit subcommittee were derailed late last fall after news of the Senate expense scandal broke.
Sen. Marshall will chair the audit subcommittee, which includes Conservative Senator Larry Smith and Liberal Senator George Furey.
Former Senate ethics officer Jean Fournier, meanwhile, is hailing the Senate’s decision to have the auditor general conduct a comprehensive audit of the Red Chamber and Senators’ expenses as a “tremendous” step towards greater transparency.
The motion was sponsored by Senate Government Leader Marjory LeBreton and passed by the Senate last week.
“I think this is a huge step forward, and I give full credit to Senator LeBreton for that,” Mr. Fournier told The Hill Times following the introduction of the Senate government leader’s motion, which passed on June 6. “No doubt, some of the Senators will be uneasy. Change is never easy, but the time has come and I think Sen. LeBreton has been hearing the views of the public.”
However, Mr. Fournier noted there were “a lot of details” that would need to be worked out, including the time frame covered by the audit, the terms of reference, and whether or not the audits would be conducted on a regular basis.
“Having made that policy decision, the auditor general should take it from there and develop a plan and have a discussion with the Senate, in terms of how he proposes to do it. He is independent and you shouldn’t put restraints on him,” he urged.
Gordon Barnhart, who served as clerk of the Senate from 1989 to 1994, said he’s interested to see what comes out of the auditor general’s comprehensive audit of individual Senators’ spending.
“A comprehensive audit…means it’s not just seeing whether all of the figures add up, that two plus two equals four, it looks at economies and efficiencies as well, and were the policies carried out in the appropriate way, and those sorts of things,” said Mr. Barnhart.
Sen. LeBreton introduced the motion in light of the Senate expense scandal which has embroiled the Upper Chamber for months since it was revealed that four Senators—now Independent Saskatchewan Senator Pamela Wallin, now Independent P.E.I. Senator Mike Duffy, now Independent Ontario Senator Mac Harb, and now Independent Quebec Senator Patrick Brazeau—were reimbursed by the Senate for ineligible expense claims.
Senators Duffy, Brazeau, and Harb were audited by Deloitte for their living expense claims, and Sen. Duffy is also being investigated by Elections Canada for expense claims filed during the 2011 election period. Most recently, the Senate Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration Committee referred the matter of Sen. Duffy’s expense claims to the RCMP for investigation. Sen. Wallin is being audited by Deloitte for travel expense claims.
The Senate Internal Economy Committee is still awaiting the outcome of Sen. Wallin’s audit. Sen. Tkachuk said the Senate now expects the report to be completed this summer. He told The Hill Times that if Sen. Wallin’s report is ready in the summer, the Internal Economy Committee will be called to sit “whether it’s prorogation or adjournment.”
Sen. Tkachuk said it was always his intention to have the AG review the Senate “every five or seven years.”
Liberal Senator Jane Cordy, a member of the Senate Internal Economy Committee, said she supported Sen. LeBreton’s motion for a comprehensive audit by the AG, but questioned “the motive” behind it.
Sen. Cordy suggested Sen. LeBreton was trying distract attention from the Prime Minister’s Office, which has come under heavy scrutiny since it was revealed that now former PMO chief of staff Nigel Wright cut Sen. Duffy a $90,000 cheque to reimburse Parliament for ineligible living expense claims. The CBC also reported last week that the PMO operates a secret fund which Mr. Wright had exclusive signing authority, but the Conservatives said the CBC story is wrong.
Sen. Cordy said she thinks Canadians likely expect “regular audits” of the Senate.
“Annual [audits] would probably be very challenging for the Auditor General’s Office to do…but regular audits would probably not be out of line with what Canadians would expect,” said Sen. Cordy.
Mr. Fournier described the auditor general as “the gold standard” in accountability.
In a previous interview with The Hill Times, Mr. Fournier suggested that the Auditor General’s Office open the books on both the Senate and the House every five years. Former auditors general Sheila Fraser and Ken Dye have recommended that the AG’s office conduct comprehensive reviews of Parliament’s Upper and Lower Chambers every 10 years with a follow-up review within two years of the initial audit.
During Mr. Barnhart’s time as clerk, then auditor general Ken Dye conducted what Mr. Barnhart described as a “comprehensive” audit of the Senate and made a number of recommendations.
But, Mr. Barnhart said that due to resistance from the Senate Internal Economy Committee at the time, only about three quarters of Mr. Dye’s recommendations were implemented. Among those not implemented, said Mr. Barnhart, was a “key recommendation,” that stated that the Senate should “more clearly define the mandates of the Committee on Internal Economy and its subcommittees.”
“Internal Economy should, in turn, establish a clearer accountability relationship with senior staff, particularly the Clerk of the Senate, so that the Senators on the Committee do not become unnecessarily involved in the day-to-day administration of Senate support services,” wrote Mr. Barnhart of the recommendation in an email to The Hill Times last week.
Mr. Barnhart said “for the entire time” he was in the Senate, the Internal Economy’s involvement with the “nitty-gritty” details of the Senate administration “was a bone of contention.” He also told CBC’s Power & Politics that the Senate Internal Economy Committee had too much power over the Senate administration and that it wouldn’t let him do his job.
Mr. Fournier urged that Senate administration be given the capacity to implement and oversee the new checks on Senators’ expense claims, and that the Senate’s Internal Economy Committee clarify its responsibilities so that the administration and the auditor general are able to conduct their duties without interference.
“Internal Economy should not deal with specific expense claims of Senators,” Mr. Fournier said. “Those things should be dealt with by professionals and Internal Economy should deal with the rules, generally, and with relations with the auditor general.”
The Senate Internal Economy’s role in overseeing the Deloitte audits has come under fire from some, particularly the NDP opposition in the House, for being a committee of peers overseeing peers.
Sen. Cordy said she doesn’t see a problem with the Senate Internal Economy Committee continuing to handle the audits, and said “most organizations have audit committees or boards of directors within their organization who deal with these kinds of things.”
Sen. Cordy said the Senate Internal Economy Committee’s role is to ensure the proper running of the Senate, but said it “would be helpful” if matters such as the committee’s contentious report on Sen. Duffy’s expenses “are held in the open.”
Sen. Cordy pointed out that the Senate Internal Economy Committee is “not the final word” and said they bring their reports and recommendations to the Senate for approval.
Mr. Fournier was appointed the Senate’s first ethics officer in 2005 and retired last year after a 46-year career in the public service. While he was responsible for upholding the Senate’s Conflict of Interest Code, he has also defended the Senate against attacks by members of the House of Commons.
Mr. Fournier urged the House and MPs to also accept regular comprehensive auditing by auditor general.
“Listening to the House, you would think all the problems are in the Senate, but there are serious issues there and they have to be dealt with. Now is the time,” he said. “There’s no point in just focusing on the Senate and then in a few years having another crisis and a decision on the House.”
The Auditor General’s Office released audits of Senate and House Administration in June of 2012, but the reviews did not look at individual Parliamentarians’ expenses.
The reports, however, flagged problems with financial management in both Houses of Parliament. In the House of Commons audit, it was found that 41 of 59 examined procurements failed to comply with the administration’s own guidelines. The audit of the Senate found that some expense claims lacked proper documentation—an observation that seems an understatement in light of recent developments in the Red Chamber.
NDP MP Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay, Ont.), his party’s ethics critic, challenged the suggestion that the House suffers from similar problems. He said that the House’s Board of Internal Economy is taking steps to tighten the rules around procurement, while there were “major problems” that had been uncovered in the Senate.
“We’re dealing with Senators who were claiming money they had no right to claim without any form of receipt system whatsoever,” said Mr. Angus. “I’ve never seen anything like that in the House of Commons. I’m regularly called about trips I make if there’s questions, issues, or forms aren’t filled out exactly.”
Mr. Barnhart said while Senators “generally were hard working and lived within the rules,” he said during his time as clerk there was an attitude of “what a Senator wants, a Senator gets.”
Senators are allocated a certain number of regular travel points, or return air trips—now down to 52 points from 64 following recent changes—to travel between Ottawa and the region they represent.
Mr. Barnhart said while he was there, his understanding was that the points were only meant from travel back and forth to a Senator’s province and Parliament Hill, and while he said Senators would have to justify their trips to an Internal Economy Subcommittee, the details weren’t public.
“So if a Senator [wanted] to do something in Brussels… and they got permission, then from this secret committee which wasn’t a public committee at all, they could go from Ottawa to Brussels to, say, Saskatoon and then back to Ottawa and they would still count it as one of those [regular point] trips, and obviously the extra cost was included in that,” said Mr. Barnhart.
Mr. Barnhart also told CBC’s Power & Politics that he used to tell some Senators that they couldn’t do certain things, “because it’s immoral, unethical, or illegal, and they’d say, ‘No, that doesn’t matter, we’re not accountable.’”
Sen. Tkachuk, who was appointed to the Senate in 1993 on the recommendation of former prime minister Brian Mulroney, said he couldn’t comment on Mr. Barnhart’s time, but said the Internal Economy Committee has a budget subcommittee that approved all travel, including committee travel and international travel, and said roughly four international trips would be approved each year.
Sen. Tkachuk said about four years ago, in an effort to introduce accountability, the Senate Internal Economy Committee changed the process so Senators travelling internationally were required to report back to the Senate, and publicly table their budget.
“Since I’ve been chair, all trips are reported back to the Senate and the full budget or cost of the trip is also tabled in the Senate,” said Sen. Tkachuk.
Following the recent changes to the Senate travel and expense policies, Senators are now only permitted to travel internationally to New York for UN business or to Washington, D.C. Sen. Tkachuk the budget subcommittee will no longer be responsible for approving international travel.
Original Article
Source: hilltimes.com
Author: CHRIS PLECASH, LAURA RYCKEWAERT
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