Some Nova Scotia politicians inappropriately spent thousands of taxpayers dollars on things like custom furniture and LCD televisions says a new report from the province's auditor general.
The details are included in a scathing report by Jacques Lapointe, the province's auditor general, which shows major misuse of MLA expense accounts.
According to the report, one member spent $8000 for a generator in their own home. Yarmouth MLA Richard Hurlbert says he did purchase the generator, however it is only in his home to be kept charged.
“The generator was purchased in order to assist local organizations in the event
of a power failure and ground search and rescue operations,” said Hurlburt in a press release late Wednesday.
“The
generator is currently at my home for the purpose of keeping it charged. It is
not, and has never been used for personal purposes.
Another member paid a brother $1200 to sand their parking lot.
Lapointe says members claimed expenses already covered by other allowances, and got money for items that had already been claimed. There were 64 duplicate claims totaling $14,123.
"All those claims are not in accordance with regulations and should've been disallowed," says Lapointe.
Another group of expenses fall under the rules, but were considered excessive, like the $13,000 custom-made home furniture. One member purchased 11 computers in three years.
Other excessive purchases
$6,234 for website design and programming
$5,501 claimed for a laptop computer
$3,250 for a projector screen and accessories
$2,969 for book purchases
$2,665 for a projector
$2,600 for a printer
$2,499 for a 40 inch LCD television
$2,150 for a digital camera
$1,763 for a video camera
$790 for a model boat office display
$738 for an espresso coffee maker
$750 for a GPS unit
However, which members made the purchases weren't released.
"I decided to exclude members names from the report, not for their protection but I hope to focus attention on a broken system that requires fixing, rather than on individuals," says Lapointe.
Charlie Parker, the Speaker of the House says he won't disclose the names either.
However he would admit his questionable purchase.
"I bought a replica from the local artisan of the ship Hector in the town of Pictou which is certainly a of historical significance to my community," says Parker.
Parker says the $790 purchase was within the guidelines -- but because the auditor general says it falls outside the norm of acceptable -- he intends to pay it back.
As for the other individuals on the list, Parker says he's not going to confront individual MLAs about their expense accounts.
"I think individual members have to look themselves in the mirror and decide whether they want to release any information about themselves if they're within the report,"
Parker says he is accepting all the report's recommendations and is going to focus on fixing the system.