Senate Board Sent Pamela Wallin’s Travel Audit Reports To RCMP

To participate in “Here for PM Rally” held in Saskatoon on 15 April 2011, Senator Pamela Wallin traveled the place and charged $230.88 to the taxpayers for the trip, although the program she had attended was a Conservative party election rally. However, the senator herself opined that she visited the place in order to attend the “Senate business”. Almost same explanation was cited for the event happen on April 19 of the same year, which the auditors of Conservative party suggested as “a 2011 campaign visit” for which $235.28 was charged to the taxpayers by Pamela.
According to the auditors, the events mentioned above are entirely partisan in nature and in some cases assist the Conservative parte or its MPs to raise funds. In a detailed report on Pamela’s traveling expenses, that released on Tuesday the auditors concluded that those events could not be regarded as senator’s business and for this reason she could not charge the taxpayers.
After reviewing 91-page Deloitte report, the Senate committee suggested that the RCMP should be called in for a possible criminal investigation. Wallin’s spending audit throw challenge to her claims of expenses. It contains several incidents to prove the expenses claims of the senator erroneous. In November 2009, she attended the Grey Cup gala dinner as a special guest for which she charged the taxpayers.
In addition to these, she also charged the taxpayers approximately $3,000 for a trip between Toronto and Ottawa held in June 24 -26, 2011. According to the auditors, the trip cannot be considered as Senate business as it is informed that the senators are ordered to stay close to Ottawa and moreover, she got a living allowance still June 27, 2011 for a secondary habitation.
It is informed that Wallin is ordered to repay $82,000 already. In addition to this, the auditors left an amount of $20,000 of questionable travel of Wallin in the hands of committee for review. It is evident that Wallin spent almost 476 days in last three years in Toronto and on the other hand, she spent 368 days in Saskatchewan, which place she represents as a senator.
It is remarkable that Wallin refused to make any remark after the release of the report. However, on Monday she pointed the audit as tainted and unfair and opined that the travel spending rules codified in 2012 were being applied to her spending since 2009 retroactively. Hugh Segal, the Conservative Senator, agreed with Wallin.
Liberal Senate James Cowan opined that it was entirely unethical to utilize the positions of Senate to fulfill personal issues. He believed that there was no problem regarding the rules and added that the problem lies in the unwillingness of some senators. Some senators also pointed the pattern of travel spending as very troubling.
It is informed that between November 2012 and January 2013, Wallin repaid an amount of $18,219 in questionable claims and repaid $6,772 after auditors started their evaluation. She has already paid back a total sum of $38,369 and has to repay more than $82,000.