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| Last updated at 11:21 PM on 14/09/07 |
Greedy pigs 
THE TELEGRAM
The Telegram
There just simply aren’t enough adjectives to describe how horrendous the constituency allowance mess really is.
But here are some of the luxury items that have been billed by its legislators to what has often been described as Canada’s poorest province: a $319 Cartier pen; a jewelry store item — just what it was isn’t on the receipt — worth $1,537; season’s tickets to the St. John’s Maple Leafs; $739 in high-end perfume; a pair of $247 sunglasses; $65,000 in artwork.
And then there’s the mundane expenses charged to the province, the sort of thing the average taxpayer has to take care of themselves: one MHA had the taxpayer pick up the snowclearing for the driveway at his house. Others charged golf fees, bicycle repairs, underwear, lottery tickets, hotel movies, motor vehicle registration for their personal vehicles, car washes, home-heating fuel and even cigarettes.
The provincial auditor general has just finished an examination of how this province’s MHAs spent the largely unregulated funds in their constituency allowances.
Some MHAs come close to a clean bill of health. Many do not.
Over seventeen years, 115 MHAs spent some $25 million in constituency allowances. Of that, the auditor general has identified $2.2 million of what he terms “inappropriate expenditures.”
Half of the 115 MHAs have used their constituency allowances to make purchase of alcohol. Some MHAs bought thousands of dollars worth of booze — one, during 13 years in office, bought more than $34,000 worth of booze with taxpayers’ money.
Others made downright confusing claims. In Bill Matthews’ case, the auditor says, “we identified 19 instances … where the member claimed receipts from restaurants in one location (18 of 19 in St. John’s) which were dated during a period where private vehicle mileage claims submitted by the member indicated he was on travel status in another location (18 of 19 in his Grand Bank district).”
And on it goes.
“One member initially claimed mileage from St. John’s to their district as 700 km, then, in 2004-05 increased this to 800 km and claimed 54 trips, and in 2005-06 increased this to 900 km and claimed 43 trips.”
It was, for many MHAs, clearly a culture of entitlement. For others, it was a trough they were more than ready to stick their greedy snouts into.
The auditor general didn’t say who it was, but one MHA charged the costs of an annual barbecue for constituents to the constituency allowance fund, and then turned around and charged the constituents a fee to attend.
Disgusting. If they were clerks in a doughnut store, we’d be able to pick them out by the stipple of icing sugar permanently caked around their mouths.
And just in case you think we should feel sorry for these mopes, keep this in mind: every political party said their members would pay back the $2,875 “bonus” payment they received from their constituency allowance in May, 2004. As of Aug. 16, 12 of them — including Deputy Premier Tom Rideout — hadn’t gotten around to paying anything back.
Take a look at the report, and if you find your MHA is on the list of the greedy and entitled, think hard about whether he or she deserves your vote.
Fact is, they probably don’t deserve to hold any elected office whatsoever.
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15/09/07
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