Another politician named in N.L. audit reports

A veteran Liberal politician was overpaid for his constituency allowances forsix years, Newfoundland and Labrador's auditor general said Tuesday.

Percy Barrett, who has represented the eastern Newfoundland district of Bellevue since 1989, received $117,286 beyond his entitlements, Auditor General John Noseworthy reported.

Noseworthy found that Barrett, 58, who served as a cabinet minister under former premier Roger Grimes, received those payments between the 1998 and 2004 fiscal years.

"I'm prepared to say I'm innocent. I will say that I'm innocent right now," Barrett said Tuesday afternoon at the legislature.

In new reports tabled Tuesday, Noseworthy also found additional excess payments for four politicians who were identified this summer in audits that rocked Newfoundland and Labrador's political establishment.

In all, Noseworthy's audits have found that anunauthorized$1,586,573 was paid to five politicians— Barrett, Tory Ed Byrne, Liberal Wally Andersen, New Democrat Randy Collins and former Liberal MHA Jim Walsh — between 1998 and 2006.

Noseworthy said no other politicians were found to have been overpaid.

"This is it. This is the end of it," Noseworthy told reporters at a briefing Tuesday.

The new reports build on a series of bombshell audits that were released in June and July. In those audits, Noseworthy found that Andersen, Byrne, Collins and Walsh had together received more than $1 million in constituency allowances beyond their entitlements.

Noseworthy's first reports, though, dealt only with claims made back to the 2003-2004 fiscal year.

After those reports were tabled, the provincial government asked Noseworthy to review legislative records dating back to 1989, when the current system was created.

Noseworthy's new reports revise the initial findings considerably.

For instance, Noseworthy said that Byrne— who was forced out of a cabinet seat in June— had claimed more than $467,000 from the fiscal 1999 year onward.

Problems started during Tobin era: Noseworthy

Excessive constituency claims began to appear in 1998, while Brian Tobin was premier, Noseworthy said.

Noseworthy madethe point during his news conference that Tobin was premier when the house of assembly moved to bar the auditor general's office from reviewing politicians' claims.

The overpayments "escalated" in the years that followed, he said.

After Danny Williams and the Progressive Conservatives took office in 2003, the power of the auditor general's office to review the legislature's books was restored.

Williams wound up losing one of his most-trusted lieutenants in this summer's scandal. Apart from serving as natural resources minister, Byrne— a former leader of the PC party— was also government house leader.

Byrne announced last week that he will resign effective Jan. 1. He said he could not continue to work as an MHA while still under a cloud.

Noseworthy's reports have dealt with more than politicians.

He also found that about $2.8 million was paid to four companies for such things as fridge magnets, pins, gold rings and keepsakes.

One of the companies was controlled by Bill Murray, who was suspended this summer as director of financial operations at the house of assembly.

Other matters still under investigation

Noseworthy's staff are continuing work on another area of investigation: the appropriateness of what politicians have claimed as expenditures, and the "adequacy of supporting documentation."

The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary opened its own investigation this summer after Noseworthy's first reports were tabled.

As well, Williams has appointed Derek Green, the chief justice of the Newfoundland Supreme Court's trial division, to review not onlyconstituency allowances, but the broader issues of how politicians are compensated.