First I will be clear that I am not pleased to learn about the inappropriate spending by some senators. It does however seem that the concern has been overstated by politicians and the media. Check the numbers.
According to The Canadian Press article in Saturday's paper "The audit, which cost nearly $21 million to conduct, reviewed more than 80,000 transactions worth about $180 million."
I am not an auditor however I wonder if $250 per transaction (20 million divided by 80,000) is a reasonable cost for audit services or, looking at it another way, should it cost $1 million to review $9 million worth of expenses?
What about results? The report identifies under $1 million dworth of "questionable expenses" - which works out to about .5 percent. How many other organizations, government or private sector, have a margin of "questionable expenses" that is half a percentage?
If the proposed "independent oversight committee" will cost over $20 million for every 1 million of 'questionable expenses' identified then this, in my opinion, is definitely a "questionable expense." Looked at another way, the report would indicate that 99.5 per cent of the expenses claimed by our senators are appropriate; yet they are all being tarred with the same brush. In fact there are many hard working, dedicated and responsible senators.
Beth Quesnel
Prince George
