The National Audit Office has just published a far from positive report about MPs’ expenses for 2009/10. The Whitehall spending watchdog examined £98.1 million on the reimbursement of costs incurred by members during the period.
It found there was:
* £0.8m where no evidence had been obtained by the House authorities
* £1.8m where evidence was held by police and therefore not available to examine and
* £11.3m of costs where evidence had been obtained by the House authorities “in accordance with the framework of rules governing the administration of MPs’ expenses” but “not sufficient to confirm that it had been incurred for Parliamentary purposes“.
As a result the NAO has refused to sign off the accounts.
The report mostly covers a period that followed the MPs expenses scandal – which broke in May 2009 – and precedes the setting up of the independent IPSA body that monitors members’ spending.
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey