MLA expenses Government website to put public in the loop
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$0 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*No charge for 4 weeks then price increases to the regular rate of $19.00 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.75/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*Your next subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $16.99 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $23.99 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/03/2011 (5370 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Want to know how much your MLA is billing for mileage or for meals with constituents?
That information is starting to be available online. Sandra Holmberg, manager of the Manitoba Legislative Assembly’s Members’ Allowances Office, said the public should be able to view copies of individual MLA expense claim forms on the Assembly’s website by the end of April.
On Wednesday, the website began publishing monthly reports for various MLA allowances, including travel, constituency office expenses and staff, as well as living allowances.
This new era in MLA expenses transparency was sparked by a November 2009 report by Carol Bellringer, Manitoba’s auditor general. Her two-year study blew the whistle on sloppy expense claims and other questionable MLA practices, such as taking home taxpayer-bought computers or furniture that had been fully depreciated.
Last September, the province’s commissioner for allowances instituted a new set of rules for MLA expense reporting. Michael Werier also directed that expense claim forms and monthly and annual totals be posted online.
The expenses in question amount to about $3 million a year and do not include costs incurred by cabinet ministers on government business. Those expenses are posted on departmental websites. Holmberg said when individual claim forms are posted online at the end of next month, they will reveal such information as the date, location and amount of a meal billed to taxpayers by an MLA as part of his or her constituency allowance. If members of the public want to know who an MLA entertained, they will have to apply to the Members’ Allowances Offices at the Legislative Building to view the information.
To check out MLAs’ monthly spending totals, Google ‘Manitoba Legislative Assembly.’ Once on the website, click on ‘members’ in the left-hand column and then on ‘allowances and remuneration.’ Scroll to the bottom of the page.
larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca