Senate to forward expense files of nine Senators to the RCMP
The Auditor General’s two-year examination of current and former Senators’ books has flagged $976,627 in problematic expenses, tied to just a few current and former members. “I have followed the rules,” protests one whose file may be referred to police.

thestar.com
June 5, 2015
By Joanna Smith

The Senate handed the expense records of nine of its own to the Mounties on Friday as part of the fallout from the two-year examination of its books by auditor general Michael Ferguson.

“We’ve committed to not question any element of the report,” Senate Speaker Leo Housakos told the Star in an interview, adding that he would have preferred that Ferguson be the one to refer his own findings to the RCMP.

The Canadian Press reported retired Liberal senator Rod Zimmer, one of the nine whose expenses were referred to the police, led the pack when it came to the amounts Ferguson said should be repaid. He had disputed expense claims totalling $176,014 in travel expenses for non-parliamentary business and a housing allowance he should not have claimed.

The Star has confirmed the audit to be formally released June 9 identifies a total of $976,627 in inappropriately claimed expenses, and that more than half that amount - about $546,000 - is linked to just five senators.

That is the amount Ferguson found issues with following arduous, line-by-line reviews of 80,000 transactions worth about $180 million involving 117 senators from April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2013.

“The weaknesses and problems uncovered in the course of this comprehensive audit of senators’ expenses call for a transformational change in the way expenses are claimed, managed, controlled and reviewed,” Ferguson wrote, according to The Canadian Press.

“Simply changing or adding to existing rules will not be enough. Improvements in oversight, accountability, transparency, and senators’ consideration for the cost to taxpayers are needed to resolve the issues that we have identified.”

Housakos said the 30 senators named in the report, including himself, have been sent invoices demanding repayment of the amounts in the report.

They are all being given the opportunity to appeal the findings through a new arbitration process presided over by former Supreme Court justice Ian Binnie, the results of which will be final and binding.