MPs expenses

[Argus]

I disagree. I don't think anyone should be opened to limitless scrutiny. Do performance audits (from an outside body like...say...KPMG) and release a letter grade. We don't need to see everything that everyone bought. This level of scrutiny is going to make anyone worth while far too paranoid to even attempt to enter politics.

Let me explain the difference between a normal audit and a performance audit. If an MP hires a friend, or girlfriend to write speeches for him, and pays her $50,000 the KPMG audit will not question it at all. However, a performance audit would ask what qualifications the speechwriter had, ask to see the speeches, and ask where they were given. If it turns out they were half a page in length and virtually identical, the performance audit would then question why government money was going to them.

This is in fact, somewhat similar to the sponsorship scandal, where the performance audit determined that a half million dollar study done for public works consisted mostly of names from the phone book.

Edited May 21, 2010 by Argus