Appearing on the sidelines of a major Latin American trade summit here on Thursday, Harper was asked the terms of the agreement between Duffy and Nigel Wright, which saw Wright cut a $90,000 personal cheque so the senator could repay expenses he shouldn’t have claimed.
“Mr. Wright gave Mr. Duffy money (because) he felt that the right thing should be done, that Mr. Duffyshould repay taxpayers,” Harper said. “That’s my understanding.”
When asked whether he would commit to releasing the agreement, which reportedly involved lawyers representing Duffy and the Prime Minister’s Office, Harper replied: “I’m not aware of any formal agreement on this.”
Harper indicated his understanding of the arrangement came exclusively from Wright, who announced his resignation Sunday morning after claiming in a statement that he “did not advise the prime minister of the means by which Senator Duffy’s expenses were repaid.”
While Harper appeared to vouch for Wright’s motives, he did note several times that his former chief of staff will have to answer to the ethics commissioner about his actions.
The prime minister also admitted he maybe should have accepted Wright’s resignation earlier — an indication that Harper initially planned to stand by him.
“He should have told me earlier,” Harper said. “That’s why I accepted his resignation upon reflection. Should I have reached that conclusion earlier? Perhaps.”
Harper also said while an internal Senate committee contacted his office about an audit of Duffy’s expense claims, the committee also contacted the opposition and other stakeholders.
The committee has been under a cloud of suspicion for almost two weeks amid allegations that it went easy on Duffy in its final report as part of a backroom deal the P.E.I. senator might have struck with Wright.
The committee removed language in its final report on Duffy that suggested he broke “unambiguous” rules about housing expenses and that the committee didn’t believe Duffy’s home in Cavendish, P.E.I. was his primary residence.
While wording in the report was softened, Harper noted the committee’s final recommendations echoed those laid out by independent auditor Deloitte.
“They took their own decision,” Harper said of the committee. “They took those recommendations on the recommendations included in an independent external audit that the Senate commissioned on this matter. Those are the facts.
“I think the conclusions of the report and of the independent external audit are absolutely correct,” he added. “That the expenses that were charged by these senators was inappropriate and should be repaid by taxpayers.”
But Harper went on to defend his handling of the affair, which has cast a pall over his government for more than a week as well as over this four-day, two-country trade trip through South America.
“The government has taken the absolutely appropriate actions under the circumstances,” he said. “We’ve always said when these kinds of things occur, we will take action and deal with them, and hold people accountable. That’s what we’ve done and I think Canadians will understand that.”
Harper returns to Ottawa on Friday.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Lee Berthiaume
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