I've seen a few comments directed at me about the MLA expense fiasco.
When I wrote the last Blog, the Speaker had not released the full letter and appendices from the Auditor General, as was asked by our Caucus on three occasions. The Caucuses were alerted be the Speaker's Office to the names in the letter which, as you know, included names like Richard Hurlburt and Darrell Dexter on Wednesday last week.
Once we finally got a copy of the full document we found other references to MLAs in the appendices, including my name. I was listed on a page called duplicates payments to be recovered. They were two separate items;
- August and September 2008, $100.00 for le Conseil Acadian de Par-en-bas (duplicate)
- June and July 2008, $378.00 for a Roots Briefcase (duplicate)
So my total to be repaid for this accounting error is $478.00 and the cheque is written and will be dropped to the Speakers office on Tuesday when I'm back in the city.
The frustrating part about this is how all this was handled by the Speaker. It was very apparent that in the independent officer of the house (The Speaker) had shared this information with the Premier or Premier's office and has holding it back. It was our belief that there should be full release of the information, regardless of the contents, to the public so that we as MLAs can get on with creating a better expense system.
I've always tried my best to be accurate and transparent with my expenses and will figure out how to start posting a spreadsheet that will allow all constituents to see them.