Senate expense case may be sent to RCMP

OTTAWA — Canada’s auditor general will recommend the Senate refer 10 cases of alleged misspending by former and current senators to the Mounties, naming names and detailing the disturbing findings that have raised concerns of criminality.

The report will also contain about a dozen recommendations to help the upper chamber prevent further abuse of expenses.

The 10 senators — most now retired — have been informed in writing Michael Ferguson’s final report on Senate spending will single them out and will urge the upper chamber to call in the RCMP over their expense files, the Ottawa Citizen has learned.

The 10 senators will have the right to challenge his findings to an outside arbitrator. If they choose not to, the Senate will send the file to the Mounties promptly.

(Any finding by the arbitrator their spending was, in fact, justified would force the Senate to pick sides between the arbitrator’s views and those of the auditor.)

If any files involving retired senators go to the RCMP, the Senate is prepared to take those retirees to court to try to recoup wrongfully claimed expenses.

The details come from multiple Senate sources with knowledge of Ferguson’s final report and the Senate’s planned response.

Ferguson’s office would not comment on the report.

“Our work is ongoing, and it is our intention to have a report ready to deliver to the Speaker of the Senate in the first week of June,” it said in an email. “We don’t discuss the contents of our audit until it is made public.”

Ferguson’s audit teams have pored through two years of spending receipts from senators, doing a line-by-line review of travel spending, phone calls, office contracts and lunch receipts.