Tory staff, ministers didn’t pay fees: report
Critics say thousands of dollars in charges show disdain for Canadian taxpayers
OTTAWA — More than 40 Conservative political staffers or ministers have racked up thousands of dollars in delinquent fees on their government-issued credit cards, according to reports tabled in Parliament.
The delinquent payments occurred in the offices of 13 different Conservative ministers, for bills adding up to more than $100,000.
They included $4,342.26 in charges incurred by up to five Conservatives in the office of the industry minister that were written off as “uncollectable debt,” according to the records, which were produced in response to questions raised by Liberal MP Geoff Regan of Halifax West.
The office of the current industry minister, Christian Paradis, suggested that one of his predecessors at Industry Canada was to blame for the unrecoverable debt.
“No employee of Minister Paradis’ office, past or present, owes any money to the government of Canada,” said Paradis’ spokeswoman, Alexandra Fortier. “The decision not to recover these funds was made by the department of Industry Canada and not the minister’s office. At no time was Minister Paradis informed of this decision, nor did he direct the department not to recover these funds.”
Sean Osmar, press secretary for Treasury Board President Tony Clement, said the government “treats taxpayers’ money with the utmost respect, and we require that government business be done at the lowest possible cost to taxpayers.”
But Conservative ministers were not able to say whether the expenses in their offices were related to work or personal matters. Most departments indicated they were not equipped to comprehensively track the use of credit cards.
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, who leads an office that, before he was appointed, recorded 13 cases of Conservative staffers being late on credit card bills totalling nearly $90,000, said in a signed statement that his department only reviewed proper usage of governmentissued credit cards on a caseby-case basis.
The department ended up paying $949.02 in fees triggered by the delinquent accounts, but later recovered the charges, Baird said.
Although most delinquent charges appear to have been recovered, Regan said the numbers show a “disturbing” pattern of abuse and suggest that the government doesn’t know how to manage taxpayers’ money.
“It’s like saying there’s one set of rules for us and one set of rules for you,” Regan said in an interview on Thursday. “How can they expect to run departments if they can’t run their offices?”
Regan said he could not remember seeing cases of delinquent credit card bills in his office during his three years as a fisheries minister in former prime minister Paul Martin’s Liberal government.
Osmar said that budgets in the offices of ministers were now 16 per cent lower than they were under the former Liberal government in 2005-06.
“As for the delinquent cards, I can say our government does not tolerate any misuse of taxpayers’ dollars,” Osmar said, highlighting guidelines that require bureaucrats to monitor spending. “The individuals in question are no longer employees of the government of Canada. Our government has taken all steps available to us to recover these funds.”
The responses to Regan’s questions were supposed to examine the credit card bills of Conservative staffers and ministers since 2006, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper first formed his government. But many departments were unable to produce their entire records or lists of charges.
The ministers declined to reveal the names of the staffers involved, suggesting that this information would be protected by law over privacy concerns.