According to auditing firm Deloitte’s report into Sen. Wallin’s travel expenses, an internal investigation began after her former executive assistant, Alison Stodin, wrote a letter dated Aug. 24, 2012, to New Brunswick Senator Carolyn Stewart Olsen in her capacity as a member of the Senate Internal Economy Committee. The Senate Finance branch conducted an internal review and produced a report “Senator Wallin – Review of Expenditures,” in October, 2012. Following that, the Senate contracted Deloitte in Jan. 3, 2013, to “undertake a review of the appropriateness of Sen. Wallin’s expense claims and to report on monies owing, if any, to the receiver general.”
Despite those developments, laid out in the Deloitte report and Senate contracting records, Mr. Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) defended Sen. Wallin in the House of Commons on Feb. 13, after CTV reported that there was an interim audit on $321,000 she had reportedly spent on travel aside from trips to her declared primary residence in Saskatchewan since 2010.
“In terms of Sen. Wallin, I have looked at the numbers,” Mr. Harper said in response to a question from NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair (Outremont, Que.). “Her travel costs are comparable to any Parliamentarian traveling from that particular area of the country over that period of time. For instance, last year Sen. Wallin spent almost half of her time in the province she represents in the Senate. The costs are to travel to and from that province, as any Parliamentarian would do.”
The CTV report, which Sen. Wallin had challenged, cited what it described as an audit report on her “other travel” expenses—to destinations other than to Saskatchewan.
Media resurrected Mr. Harper’s statement this week, being the topic of the first question put to him at his first news conference on a six-day tour of Canada’s Arctic.
“In February, you rose in the House of Commons defending Sen. Pamela Wallin’s expenses, which now Deloitte has found many of them were improper, and a lot of them for partisan purposes, so I just want to know how you can defend this to the rest of Canada and to Canadians,” asked Global News reporter Mike Le Couteur.
“Well, of course, at the time I indicated that all of the Senators’ expenses would be subject to robust scrutiny,” Mr. Harper said. “Individual expenses would be subject to robust scrutiny through an audit. That, of course, has since been done, and obviously has uncovered some significant problems. As you know, the Senator has not been a member of our caucus for some months, but I would expect that action would be taken to ensure full accountability for any breaking of rules.”
It was the first direct response from Mr. Harper on the topic since Deloitte released its report. Mr. Harper’s press secretary, Carl Valée, responded earlier to opposition criticism of the February statement by saying: “He was not defending the appropriateness of individual expenses, because they were not known at that time. He was referring to the total amount in comparison to Parliamentarians from the same region.”
The day after he responded to Mr. Mulcair in February, Mr. Harper said Sen. Wallin’s expenses were comparable to an average of $350,000 in travel expenses over the previous three years by NDP MPs from the western provinces, apparently including distant B.C. He did not mention the Senate review until Feb. 26, when he said during Question Period: “We have been very clear, as has the Senate and as have all Senators, they are reviewing all of their expenses to ensure not only that the expenses are appropriate, but that the rules in future for governing such expenses are appropriate. That is a commitment that has been made on this side.”
By that time, Mr. Harper had abandoned his comparison of Sen. Wallin’s expenses to those of NDP MPs or other Senators.
Up until then, it appears, neither Sen. Stewart Olsen, who served as press secretary to Mr. Harper while he was opposition leader and then as strategic communications adviser in the PMO, nor Senate Government Leader Marjory LeBreton, nor Saskatchewan Conservative Senator David Tkachuk, chair of the Senate Internal Economy throughout the period, apparently informed Mr. Harper or his staff about the extent and seriousness of the inquiry into Sen. Wallin’s expenses.
The Deloitte investigation found Sen. Wallin is subject to reimburse $121,348 to the receiver general, with an additional $20,976 worth of expenses subject to a further review by the Senate whether travel in those cases was appropriately designated as being for Senate business.
The report cites at least nine instances where Sen. Wallin or her staff either amended or deleted information from a 2013 electronic appointment calendar submitted to Deloitte as evidence of official Senate travel.
Original Article
Source: hilltimes.com
Author: Tim Naumetz
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