Senator’s former aide takes blame

Duffy staffer says she may have erred

An administrative assistant who worked in Sen. Mike Duffy’s office says she thinks she might be partly to blame for erroneous expense claims that triggered the Senate residency scandal.

Diane Scharf, a veteran Parliament Hill staffer, worked for the Prince Edward Island senator from September 2011 to March 2012 when his regular assistant went on maternity leave.

She says she had trouble keeping track of Duffy’s whereabouts because he travelled often.

“Mike was so busy and so much in demand. ‘ Go here, go there, do this, do that’ — it was hard to know if he was in Ottawa or P.E.I.”

She said she would fill out the forms in Duffy’s office and he would sign them later.

“If I made a mistake in filling out a form, I’m happy to own up to it,” Scharf said.

A Senate committee on Tuesday evening agreed to refer Duffy’s expenses to the RCMP after a second review by Senate officials found that he had claimed living expenses for days in Ottawa when he was, according to auditing firm Deloitte, not in the city.

The dates produced by the Senate appeared to show Duffy also claimed per diems on days he was campaigning for the Conservatives during the 2011 election.

Scharf contends that Duffy, who resigned from Conservative caucus, is being unfairly blamed for what could be clerical mistakes on her part or others in his office.

“I’m just sick over it. And I’m sure the girl who has worked there longer than I is beside herself,” she said.

“The last person that we would want to cause heartache to is Mike Duffy.”

When she worked for him, Scharf said, she would typically complete the expense claim forms in Duffy’s office in Centre Block, put them in a signature book with other documents, then send them down for him to sign while he was in the Senate chamber.

Yet even if Scharf made mistakes, they would not account for 27 days in 2011 for which he claimed Ottawa per diems while out of town, before she started working for him. And, as signatory on the forms, Duffy himself would be ultimately responsible for ensuring their accuracy.

But Scharf said the Senate finance officials seemed disorganized and would often reject claims they had filed.

“If we were claiming for a period that we shouldn’t have, according to them, why didn’t they say something? They are such a bunch of mixed-up people over there.”

Duffy also complained to her about apparent confusion in Senate finance, Scharf said.

“They hire a very lot of young girls,” Scharf said.

“I just think you have to have your head on your shoulders if you’re handling finances.”

Scharf has worked for two other senators, Conservatives Denise Batters and Betty Unger, and had also worked for former Liberal MP Dennis Mills.

She also worked in the press office of then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, alongside his aides Patrick Gossage, Suzanne Perry and Colin Kenny, who is now a senator.

She said Duffy was the hardest working politician she had served with on the Hill and was even working while he was in Florida in 2012 — a period for which Duffy has admitted he claimed $85 per diems in error.

“He’s not a golfer. He’s not a horseback rider. He’s not a water-skier. He’s just a workaholic,” Scharf said.