Ottawa refuses to share MPs expenses

CANADA - Spending irregularities in MPs expense accounts caused Auditor General Sheila Fraser a year ago to request to see their receipts for $533 million and exactly what they're spending their money on.

The proposed audit however has been rejected, a resounding no from Conservative MPs who don't want the public to know what they're spending taxpayer dollars on. The statement they released said the audit "would go beyond the scope of the auditor general's mandate."

Its the Auditor General of Canada! Its her job to audit things!

The only conclusion left here is that the MPs have been overspending and misusing taxpayer dollars on things they shouldn't be buying. This is hardly the first time this has happened. Very few MPs in the past have been squeeky clean and accountable on this issue. Some have just plain been outright fraudulent.

And why did the Auditor General have to wait a year before getting an answer?

In 2004 Sheila Fraser uncovered the Liberal sponsorship scandal, a scandal so big it ended up costing the Liberals the following election and Prime Minister Paul Martin was sent packing.

The obvious conclusion here is that the Conservative Party has something to hide and is worried about a similar scandal destroying their already horrible reputation.

Access-to-information laws don't apply to MP budgets and their expenses are subject to financial audits that don't show exactly where the money goes. Its kept deliberately vague.

So are MPs defrauding Canadians? Probably. We will never know since they refuse to be audited.

When you have five children and all the cookies in the cookie jar are missing you can be pretty sure more than one of them was stealing cookies.