Public Disclosure
As public office holders, Members of Parliament are subject to rigorous scrutiny of their expenditures by impartial House of Commons administration staff. MPs must prove that any expense is incurred in the process of carrying out their parliamentary duties; representing constituents and holding government to account.
All expenses must be accompanied by receipts that are submitted to the House of Commons Financial Services for payment. Non-partisan staff within that office vet every receipt before payment and refuse any that do not fit the rules or are ambiguous. They do not return receipts after payment; those documents become property of the House of Commons. The House of Commons has rigorous internal auditing which includes auditing of MPs’ expenses. This is done by an external auditor, KPMG and is publicly disclosed on the Parliament here:
Members Office and Travel Expenses 2008-2009
Links to other disclosure statements are available here:
A direct link to a specific MPs disclosure statement can be obtained from the Disclosure Statement from the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner by entering the name of the MP here:
Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
Candidate’s Electoral Campaign Return information can be found here by clicking “40th General Election” and then searching by candidate:
Federal Candidate Electoral Campaign Return
UPDATE: Auditor General to conduct performance audit of MP expenses
Discussions between a committee of MPs and the Auditor General have led to an invitation to conduct a performance audit of MP expenses. The audit will make sure that good policies and procedures are in place and that they are being followed. For more information on this development, see the following news release:
Cullen welcomes audit of MP expenses (June 18, 2010)