The Tories want the curtains to be fully pulled back on which politicians misused public money.
A partial list of MLAs linked to auditor general Jacques Lapointe’s report was released Monday, but many other abuses remain anonymous. More details are believed to be included in a letter from Lapointe to Speaker Charlie Parker. The Tories are calling for everyone to see that letter.
“We want to make sure that there is full disclosure, that indeed we move forward with the next steps,” said Cape Breton North MLA Cecil Clarke.
“We believe that we need more information from the speaker, so we can get to the next steps.”
Yesterday Clarke announced he is also tied to the embarrassing report. He said he recently discovered that, due to an accounting error, he was one of the 28 unnamed MLAs who “double dipped” on expenses.
He said both a claim and payment went through twice, in October 2008 and January 2009. Clarke said while the second payment was noticed by accounting staff, the second reimbursement slipped through.
“I claimed for, I believe, 200 certificate forms, three small prints of province house and 36 mugs that were all given away,” said Clarke.
Clarke said the double expensing was “not intentional, it was an error.” He said he only found out about it when he personally contacted the speaker’s office.
Only two of the other 27 MLAs who double dipped have come forward — Premier Darrell Dexter and Tory Alfie MacLeod.
“In most cases, the duplicate claims occurred only once or twice per member,” reads the report. But one unnamed MLA double dipped 10 times for a total of $3,072.
Speaker Charlie Parker initially said he would not release the partial list of names, but that changed when Premier Darrell Dexter returned from vacation Monday and asked for the names to be made public.
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Tories want ‘full disclosure’ on political double dippers
Nova Scotia’s auditor general Jacques Lapointe answers questions at a press conference in this file photo from November. The Tories are calling for the release of the full letter from the auditor general to the Speaker of the House.
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