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 Posté le: Ven Nov 08, 2013 9:18 am Sujet du message: aes40kg5 |
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{Senate spending probe pushes move to keep more records for senators}
OTTAWA — A probe by the auditor general into spending in the Senate has prompted senators and the chamber’s administration to start creating paper trails for decisions that previously weren’t documented.The move to document every piece of work by a senator is mainly driven by a fear that Auditor General Michael Ferguson will find something amiss in the Senate’s accounting books, even among those senators who believe they have followed all the rules.Senators admit that there are those who keep more documentation than others, and some have relied on the Senate’s administration, a non-political bureaucracy,[url=http://www.saclancelvente.fr]sac lancel[/url], to keep accurate records for years.Adding layers of paperwork, Senate sources said, is seen as a way to cover any shortcomings in documentation that the auditor general had previously pointed out.For instance, one senator was asked to sign papers outlining a request to Senate administration for help to find a new employee for the senator’s office. Normally, paperwork would only have been filled out when a new employee was actually hired — although an internal audit suggested that hasn’t always happened.In another case, a senator requested Senate administration create a record of his request for “special travel,” the category used for trips that are not between Ottawa and the senator’s home.All sources spoke to Postmedia News under condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the auditor general’s audit.Senators are being asked to provide Auditor General Michael Ferguson’s office with documents currently subject to solicitor-client privilege, one of a number of conditions the auditor general put to senators during closed door meetings earlier this fall. Solicitor-client privilege normally means that what is discussed between a client and his or her lawyer is private.Under the legislation guiding his office, Ferguson is allowed to ask for those documents and must protect them, but senators have never been subject to the auditor general act and Ferguson wants them to agree to open up everything, Senate sources said.There is a secondary fear that Ferguson will build on the spending audit done of Sen. Pamela Wallin, and define how senators should do their jobs. One long-time senator told Postmedia News the concern among some in the upper chamber is that Ferguson is being given the power to define how senators work — and whether they should travel at all.The comprehensive audit of all Senate spending will take about 18 months to complete. Democratic Reform Minister Pierre Poilievre told the House of Commons on Friday that the review will look at expenses going back two years to 2011.The probe has started with Ferguson reviewing the Senate’s spending policies and how well the Senate’s administration oversees how tax dollars are being spent. Ferguson is also looking at the detailed spending for the Senate’s leadership group and the 15 members of the Senate’s internal economy committee, which is tasked with ultimate oversight of Senate spending and its administration.The goal is to then review the spending of the remaining senators, about 70 in all, in two batches that will each take at least six months to complete.Ferguson has publicly said the whole process, which started over the summer, could take between 18 months and two years to complete. However, the timeline for the audit will see information come out sooner than 2015.The first interim report from Ferguson’s office is expected to be a Christmas gift to the Senate in December. That report will outline findings to-date of spending by Senate leadership and the internal economy committee, as well as analysis of the Senate’s oversight system.The timing for the second and third interim reports aren’t finalized, but they will review the spending behaviours of the remaining members of the upper chamber.It all comes amid the backdrop of the spending scandal that will be the focus of debate again starting Tuesday in the Senate, as members of the upper chamber decide whether to suspend three of their own — Pamela Wallin, Patrick Brazeau and Mike Duffy — without pay and without access to any of their expenses.
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