Appendix A—Files recommended for referral to other authorities

2015 June Report of the Auditor General of Canada to the Senate of Canada—Senators’ Expenses Appendix A—Files recommended for referral to other authorities

In our audit of Senators’ expenses, we found nine cases that we have recommended for immediate referral to other authorities, such as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. In each of these cases, we found one or both of the following:

• The Senator or former Senator had made ineligible claims for living expenses incurred while in the National Capital Region and other travel expenses when we determined that the Senator or former Senator had not established a substantive presence at his or her declared primary residence. In some of these cases, we looked at living and travel expenses incurred in previous years to determine whether there was a pattern of travel that supported or refuted our finding.
• There was such a pervasive lack of evidence, or significant contradictory evidence, that we were prevented from reaching an audit opinion about whether the expenses had been incurred for parliamentary business.

The nine Honourable Senators and former Senators who are included in this category are:

• Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu
• Sharon Carstairs (resigned)
• Marie-P. Charette-Poulin (resigned)
• Colin Kenny
• Rose-Marie Losier-Cool (retired)
• Donald H. Oliver (retired)
• William Rompkey (retired)
• Gerry St. Germain (retired)
• Rod A. A. Zimmer (resigned)

Notes:

• Some of the individual reports of Senators’ expenses indicate amounts repaid after 5 June 2013. This was the date that the motion to invite the Auditor General of Canada to conduct an audit of Senators’ expenses was introduced in the Senate. Repayments made after 5 June 2013 did not affect our analysis of whether the reported expenses and other transactions have been properly controlled and incurred for parliamentary business. Any repayments after 6 May 2015 were not included in these amounts.
• In a number of cases, we have reported that certain expenses were not “primarily” for parliamentary business because the use of Senate resources was not consistent with the provisions of the Senate Administrative Rules. The Senate Administrative Rules state that Senators may not use Senate resources except to carry out parliamentary functions, but incidental personal use of Senate resources is permitted. Such incidental use must be minor, and must not give rise to a Senate expense. In our audit work, we identified instances where Senators used Senate resources, but the Senators’ parliamentary business was incidental to other activities undertaken by the Senator.