No inquiry coming over expense scandal: premier
Posted Feb 11, 2010 02:52:49 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The NDP government says it is not prepared to launch an inquiry — A week after the auditor general released a damning report detailing inappropriate use of MLA’s expense accounts.
“The purpose of an inquiry is to get a result it is to get to recommendations, in fact we already have the recommendations that have been put forward by the auditor general,” says Premier Darrell Dexter.
He says he’s focusing on moving beyond the auditor general’s findings and implementing the recommendations.
Finance Minister Graham Steele questions the point of an inquiry which could demand explanations from former ministers.
“If what we’re aiming at is reform, taking a system that was bad and making it better, I’m not sure what (an inquiry) would add,” says Steele.
Minister Bill Estabrooks says the task has been accomplished.
“The lesson of course is that if the public continues to have more questions about this, then there’s going to have to be an adequate response,” says Estabrooks.
An inquiry could also look at expenses that don’t require receipts and go further back than the auditor general’s three-year glance.
