Duffy urges public probe of his expenses
Committee chairman admits he talked to PMO staff during audit
OTTAWA — Sen. Mike Duffy insisted there should be an open, public inquiry into his expenses as controversy swirled Thursday around how impartial a fresh review of his spending is likely to be.
The former Conservative senator’s demand came as news emerged that the RCMP asked last week for documents related to his file, and as the chairman of the Senate’s internal economy committee admitted he had been in contact with the Prime Minister’s chief of staff and other PMO officials about Duffy during the period when his committee was still overseeing an initial audit of Duffy’s expenses.
In his first direct remarks to reporters this week, Duffy said the review of his spending “has to be done publicly, there’s no question. We need a full and open inquiry so that it all gets aired.
“I think Canadians have a right to know all the facts, and I’m quite prepared, in the right place and time, to give them the whole story,” he said Thursday.
“There are bits and pieces out there. It should all be put together in one place, and there will be some place to do that.”
Duffy said he had no plans to resign, despite calls from some colleagues to do so.
The scandal centres on a repayment of $90,000 Duffy made for inappropriate living expense claims as he was being audited by Deloitte at the Senate’s request. The prime minister’s former chief of staff, Nigel Wright, cut him a cheque from his personal funds for that amount. Wright resigned on the weekend over the controversy.
Sen. David Tkachuk, chair of the internal economy committee, told Postmedia News Thursday he had talked with PMO staff, including Wright, during the audit process, but insisted he was “never directed to do anything.”
Tkachuk said Stephen Harper’s office got in touch with him asking about the audit process — and wondering when the final report from auditors about Duffy would be made public.
“This was a political problem that was becoming worse because it was spinning out of control,” Tkachuk said from his home in Saskatchewan where he is recovering from surgery.
“They never asked me to do anything wrong,” he said. Later, he clarified this by adding, “I was never directed to do anything.”
“I never interfered in the audit. Nobody did.”
Sen. Carolyn Stewart Olsen, the second Conservative senator on the three-person steering committee that did the initial assessment of the Deloitte audit, said she couldn’t directly discuss what the steering committee talked about or decided behind closed doors.
But Stewart Olsen, a former Harper spokeswoman, and Tkachuk had some paragraphs critical of Duffy removed from the final report about the audit.
Both Tkachuk and Stewart Olsen told Postmedia News they took “full responsibility” for the committee’s final report on Duffy’s spending.