Excessive spending investigation excessive: MLAs
Posted Apr 28, 2010 01:58:31 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Some MLAs are calling Auditor General Jacques Lapointe’s investigation into excessive spending, excessive.
Tory House Leader Murray Scott says when he pays for a service the service provider signs a receipt verifying they received the money. That receipt is then handed in to the Speaker’s office.
“And now that person is being asked to verify that they received (the money),” says Scott. “So when you think about what’s being asked here, one of two things is being suggested. Possibly the person didn’t receive the money, and who signed that person’s name to the receipt.”
The Auditor General has sent letters to several private contractors to see if they actually received money that politicians claim they’ve paid out.
“And I do take exception to that, I do,” says Scott. “I would never have signed someone else’s name to a receipt.”
Scott says he doesn’t like the idea of honest citizens being asked to verify their signature when there are other means to verify the money went where it should.
“You’ve got the cheque, you’ve got the receipt signed, what more do you want?” says Scott.
Meanwhile Deputy Premier Frank Corbett says several members of the NDP caucus have been asked to verify they received money for services.
Corbett himself has been asked to verify a $20 snow removal fee. He says he knows who the person is, and they’ve moved away from the area.
“For me to try to track them down to verify $20 I think is a bit beyond the pale,” says Corbett.
