Many of you may be aware of the expenses crisis that has engulfed the Mother of Parliaments. Many of our MPs and peers have been systematically claiming reimbursements for household goods that some of their constituents can only dream of possessing. One MP was reimbursed for a floating duck house to place on his pond. Another soaked us for several thousands of pounds for cleaning his moat. Three MPs and one peer have been formally charged with fraud (none of the MPs are standing for office in the next election, due by June).
An office was set up to audit MPs expenses and claw back some that were either illegal or unethical. A permanent office to scrutinise MPs expense claims has been set up, with the head of that office making
Why not have the audit function run out of another office that does general audits government-wide rather than a specific office just for that audit function? Something along the lines of the GAO (Government Accountability Office, formerly the General Accounting Office) here in the states?
Wouldn’t it be cheaper to elect honest people as MPs
first, catch your hare
good luck with verifying your proposition.
There is a National Audit Office (I think that’s what they call it). However, the previous head of that office left in a bit of a hurry when Private Eye discovered that he was spending quite a bit of money entertaining various and sundry and jaunting hither and thither. I’m not confident that they would do a good job of auditing expenses of MPs.
It would probably take the same number of new people to be employed by the NAO to audit MPs as the new office will employ.