Stormont expenses U-turn welcomed
A STORMONT decision to publish details of all MLAs' expenses claims since 2003 – just days after it decided that only expenses since April would be published – has been welcomed by a lobby group which exposes Government waste.
Last Thursday, party leaders and representatives of all 108 MLAs met to agree that no expenses claims before April would be published when in September they begin detailing individual items which MLAs have been claiming public money for.
But, following criticism of that decision, which was seen by some as an attempt to cover up expenses claims made before the Daily Telegraph's expose of MPs' lavish expenses, the Assembly Commission, which has members from the five main political parties, agreed on Monday night that details of all expenses since 2003 will be published.
TaxPayers' Alliance chief executive Matthew Elliott, who on Saturday accused the Assembly of attempting a cover-up, welcomed the change of heart.
"This U-turn is a welcome development, and a step in the right direction," he said.
"People have a right to see how their representatives spend our hard-earned taxes."
However, the Assembly said that receipts submitted with expenses claims will not be published – as was done by the House of Commons, although receipts there were heavily censored – but rather basic details of each claim would be published on its website.
The Assembly pointed out that it already published on its website the total figure claimed by each MLA in salary, allowances and expenses.
An Assembly spokeswoman said that the Assembly had been progressively publishing more details of MLAs' expenses.
"The Assembly Commission met on June 18 and announced that it would publish information on expenses for 2009 this September," she said.
"At this same meeting Assembly officials were asked to explore the practicality and cost of publishing expenses information dating back to 2003.
"At its next meeting on June 29, the commission was briefed that expenses information from April 2003 could be published by the end of November 2009.
"The expenses published on the website will give details on the supplier, goods supplied and amount for each claim."
l See Morning View, page 16
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Belfast
Tuesday 14 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 6 C to 9 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 5 C to 10 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North west
