Honour system now history, expert says

Audit will end ‘old-boys’ network’ tradition in Senate

A long tradition of the Senate as an “old boys’ network” will soon come to an end, thanks to an unprecedented probe by Auditor General Michael Ferguson in the coming months, says a prominent governance expert.

“The old boys’ network, the honour system, the assuming that public officials are there to serve only public good, that belongs to the history books now,” said Donald Savoie, a renowned constitutional expert and Canada Research Chair in public administration at the Université de Moncton.

“People who played fast and loose with the taxpayers’ money will be called to task.”

Conservative and Liberal senators voted in June to invite the auditor general in for a comprehensive audit. In a statement on Friday, Ferguson said his audit team has been chosen and “we expect work will move ahead shortly.”

“Some decisions remain to be finalized, but certainly our intention is to look at all senators’ expenses,” he said, adding that it generally takes 18 months to complete a performance audit, but the public might not have to wait that long for some results.

“As we understand that people may not want to wait up to 18 months to receive information, we hope to be able to provide some form of interim reporting.

Savoie said it’s “exactly what the auditor general should be doing.”

“If it exposes a number of senators … then so be it. That’s how we will make progress in restoring the credibility of our parliamentary institutions.”

It’s not the first time the auditor general has examined the Senate.

A performance audit of Senate administration released last year by Ferguson’s office gave the institution a mostly clean bill of health, but identified some problems, such as insufficient documentation to justify expenses.

“Because some of the expense claim files do not always contain sufficient documentation, it is difficult for the administration to clearly conclude that expenses are appropriate,” the auditor general said in the report.

An auditor general’s examination of Senate administration in 1991 made a similar finding regarding expense claims.

But Ferguson’s upcoming comprehensive audit of the Senate will include looking into senators’ expenses, an explosive issue in past months as independent audits have resulted in four senators — Patrick Brazeau, Mike Duffy, Mac Harb and Pamela Wallin — being ordered to repay more than $300,000 combined in travel and housing expenses.

All are now independent senators. Duffy, Brazeau and Harb are under RCMP investigation, and this week a Senate committee referred Wallin’s expenses to the Mounties as well.

Ferguson has reportedly been working out the scope of the audit with a Senate subcommittee led by Sen. Elizabeth Marshall, who was auditor general of Newfoundland and Labrador for 10 years.

The two party leaders in the Senate admit they don’t exactly know what the auditor general will find, partly because the scope of his audit hasn’t yet been established.

“I have no idea where this is going to take him,” said Sen. Marjory LeBreton, the outgoing government leader in the Senate.

“I think that, if senators have been conducting themselves properly and are mindful of taxpayers’ dollars, they have nothing to worry about.”

Sen. James Cowan, the Liberal leader in the Senate, suggested the auditor general’s scrutiny is one way to restore some public faith in the institution.