Auditor says '03 vote might have changed

The forensic auditor hired to look into NDP campaign finance irregularities believed Manitobans might not have re-elected Premier Gary Doer in 2003 had they known his party was forced to repay $76,000 in campaign rebates.

In a letter sent to Elections Manitoba in late 2004, auditor David Asselstine raised serious objections to the way that agency alerted the public to major changes to the NDP's 1999 campaign expense returns.

"It would appear that we agree that had the general public learned of the details of the material public amendments to the 1999 Manitoba NDP returns it would have been damaging to the reputation of the Manitoba NDP and may have influenced the outcome of the last provincial election," wrote Asselstine.

After more than three years of wrangling, the NDP filed amended election returns with Elections Manitoba in April of 2003 and agreed to repay $76,000 in public rebates.

But Manitobans knew nothing of the changes until the following December -- months after the June 3 election when Doer's NDP cruised to victory. Even in December, public notice amounted to four paragraphs posted on the Elections Manitoba website that was largely ignored.

The issue dominated question period on Tuesday, with the Tory Opposition claiming Elections Manitoba treated the NDP with kid gloves and shied away from pressing charges under the elections finance act. The Tories say letters from senior NDP officials and from Asselstine suggest the NDP pressured Elections Manitoba to fire Asselstine and impeded his audit.

But Premier Gary Doer categorically denied that, saying party officials have always been instructed to cooperate fully with Elections Manitoba. And Doer said Elections Commissioner Michael Green and Chief Electoral Officer Richard Balasko reached their own independent conclusions about charges, relying on expert legal advice.

"If you trust the integrity of Mr. Green and if you trust the integrity Mr. Balasko, then you trust the integrity of their conclusions. I trust them," said Doer.

Balasko, who never speaks to the media, told MLA's Monday night at a committee hearing that his reports have nothing to do with election timing.

The NDP has always maintained that it followed all the financing rules and only agreed to repay the rebate money to avoid a lengthy court battle. And they later banned union and corporate donations to do away with exactly this kind of controversy.

On Tuesday, the NDP repeatedly recalled sins Tories committed during the 1995 election where the party secretly funded aboriginal candidates to split the vote in the Interlake.

That scandal led to the Monnin Inquiry, which recommended more oversight and more investigative powers for Elections Manitoba.

Asselstine was hired by the Monnin Inquiry to conduct forensic audits on Tory campaign paperwork. Reached Tuesday, Asselstine said he's bound by law not to comment on his investigation. Though he wasn't sure which of his letters had been leaked, he said he stands by everything he wrote in correspondence.

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca

Rebate-gate

What happened years ago: After the NDP won the 1999 provincial election, Elections Manitoba questioned the party's campaign finance paperwork. In 13 campaign returns, the NDP's central campaign improperly counted union workers who were seconded to the election campaign as "expenses" instead of donations in kind. The NDP received more than $76,000 in rebates for those union workers, which the party payed back in 2003 after years of haggling. Except maybe for a handful of political insiders, the public was totally unaware of the matter until a Free Press story last summer.

What happened Monday: At a committee meeting, the Tories table two leaked letters. One was from the NDP to Elections Manitoba questioning the impartiality of forensic auditor David Asslestine, then investigating the 1999 returns. The other was from Asselstine, who said the NDP was impeding his review. Asselstine's letter makes it clear he has parted ways with Elections Manitoba.

What happened Tuesday: The matter dominated question period, and another letter from Asselstine emerged, this one saying Manitobans might have voted differently in 2003 if word of the rebate issue had gone public.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 27, 2009 A6