Senate Prepares to Audit Sen. Duffy’s Expenses Once Again

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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The Conservative Senate majority has decided to once again send the expenses of Mike Duffy for audit by a committee, citing rectifications of recent allegations about him have billed the Senate while doing both personal and political work. It was confirmed by the spokesperson for Marjory LeBreton, the Conservative Government Leader in the Senate, that the decision was taken on Friday, i.e. only a day after Mr. Duffy announced to step down from the Conservative caucus.

Mr. Duffy alleged that he will be sitting as an independent Senator due to the controversy over his expenses becoming “a significant distraction.” Addressing media after announcing to step down, Mr. Duffy stated that “it is clear the public controversy surrounding me and the repayment of my Senate expenses has become a significant distraction to my caucus colleagues, and to the government.” Hence, he added that “given that my presence within the Conservative caucus only contributes to that distraction, I have decided to step outside of the caucus and sit as an independent Senator pending resolution of these questions.”

The result of an audit released last week by the committee, showed that Mr. Duffy indicated had returned $90,172.24 in expenses and later stopped co-operating with auditors, declining requests for meetings and refusing to provide requested documents.  The director of communications for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Andrew MacDougall, informed reporters on Friday morning that “I don’t have anything to add to what the Senator put out last night. Obviously from the government’s perspective, the importance is on any improperly claimed expenses being returned to the taxpayer. Senator Duffy has returned money to the taxpayer. There’s two Senators, Brazeau and Harb, who have not, who are in fact fighting to keep their expenses that were found to be improperly claimed.”