Harder urges senators to embrace independent oversight of their expenses
OTTAWA — The government’s representative in the Senate is urging senators to stop dragging their feet and create an independent body to oversee their expenses.
Sen. Peter Harder is applying pressure six years after the Senate was engulfed by scandal over alleged improper expense claims and more than three years after the federal auditor general recommended an independent oversight body to help head off future problems.
Harder says senators should not be judging the legitimacy of their fellow senators’ expense claims, as has been the practice.
“There has to be an adjudication that isn’t just amongst ourselves,” Harder said in an interview.