Ottawa -
Newfoundland and Labrador's MPs are mostly cool to the idea of the federal auditor general reviewing more than $500 million a year in parliamentary spending.
It's an issue with particular resonance in this province.
The auditor general in Newfoundland and Labrador discovered rampant abuse of provincial legislative spending after finally being permitted to pore over the books.
Years after that scandal broke in St. John's, Ottawa is now going through its own debate over whether its auditor general should be permitted to examine Parliament's finances.
NDP MP Jack Harris said there doesn't seem to be much of a need, as there is a "much tougher regime" monitoring expenses in Ottawa.
"Everything is scrutinized," he said in an interview at his office on Parliament Hill.
"I think there's a very big difference between what was happening in Newfoundland and what happens here in Ottawa."
Harris has experience in both systems. He had a brief stint as MP in the late 1980s before going on to serve as a provincial MHA for 16 years. He jumped back to federal politics in 2008.
Harris said there are discussions ongoing between Auditor General Sheila Fraser and the board of internal economy - the secretive group of politicians that oversees parliamentary spending.
"It's not an issue of trying to keep out the auditor general. It's a question of the system is already there in place, and it's very rigid."
Humber-St. Barbe-Baie Verte MP Gerry Byrne uses process arguments to explain why Fraser should perhaps not be permitted to audit Parliament.
He questions whether Fraser - who is an officer of Parliament, and reports to Parliament - should be allowed to issue reports on that very same body.
"I am a process kind of guy," Byrne, a Liberal, said. "In terms of someone who reports to an entity, reporting on the entity, I wonder if Madame Fraser has actually sort of thought this through."
Ironically enough, that argument was among those used to bar Newfoundland and Labrador's auditor general a decade ago.
But Byrne stressed "there is an extremely robust system of audit and control and accountability" governing spending in Ottawa.
Avalon MP Scott Andrews echoed Byrne's process arguments.
"(An) officer of Parliament auditing members that appoint her, I've got a problem with," Andrews said. "So it should not be her, because she's appointed by Parliament, and she shouldn't audit Parliament."
He noted that any audits done on Parliament by other auditors should be made public.
Andrews said he is open to sharing information about his own expenses with anyone who wants to come into his office. But he noted it would create a lot of administrative work for his staff to post a detailed breakdown online.
Random-Burin-St. George's MP Judy Foote said she will abide by whatever decision the board of internal economy makes, but also noted that her financial transactions are looked at "very carefully" by internal and external accountants.
"I can tell you that, from everything I've seen since I've been here, everything is looked at very thoroughly," said Foote, who won election to Parliament in 2008 after nearly a dozen years of service in the provincial legislature.
"I abide by the rules, I always have, and I will continue to do so."
Bonavista-Gander-Grand Falls-Windsor MP Scott Simms had a simple answer when asked whether Fraser should be permitted to look at the books.
"Yes," said Simms.
The Liberal MP noted that the public has a strong appetite for transparency in government.
"It's coming," Simms said. "It's inevitable. People are demanding it, and it's going to happen. So we have an opportunity to discuss with the auditor general what she wants to look at, what is available, and do it responsibly."
If anyone wants to see his expenses, Simms said, they are welcome to come to his office. He is considering posting the information on his website.
"It's something that was never really an issue in the first four years I was elected," Simms said. "Only in the past year I've had people say to me, you know, maybe we should look at expenses. If there's nothing to hide, why evade the subject?"
The province's two other MPs - Todd Russell and Siobhan Coady - did not return messages seeking comment before deadline.
Fraser's request is being met with a notable lack of enthusiasm on Parliament Hill.
In a media briefing last week, Fraser told reporters she didn't know why politicians would bar her from the books.
"I think you'd have to ask them that," she said.
Marcel Proulx, the Quebec Liberal MP who is spokesman for the House of Commons board of internal economy, declined to get into specifics. "That is still under discussion by the board," Proulx told the Halifax Chronicle-Herald last week. "Until we've made a decision, you'll have to wait on that."
While parliamentary spending is currently audited, Fraser said that audit covers Parliament's financial statements. Her office would do a performance audit - something that would go much deeper.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, auditors were barred in 2000. That decision was reversed when the Williams administration took power in 2003. The AG subsequently uncovered wildly inappropriate spending that sparked broad police probes of the legislature's financial practices.
Four former MHAs and a former bureaucrat have since been jailed on corruption charges. A businessman is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to defrauding taxpayers and bribing a House official.
In recent years, auditors have also uncovered problems in politicians' spending in Nova Scotia and Great Britain.
In the U.K., one MP famously stuck taxpayers with the tab for cleaning his moat.
rantle@thetelegram.com
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