Just when you thought we’d got it sorted!
Just last week the new body set up to supervise MPs expenses announced it WILL NOT publish full details of MPs expenses.
This is unacceptable in an age where Government spending is all online as standard!
IPSA (the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority) claims it will cost one million pounds to highlight and scan receipts and is not in the best interests of the taxpayer. Instead it is planned that MPs’ claims will be published on IPSA’s website under general categories – such as “travel” – with a description of each claim.
Publishing expenses and receipts was the reason IPSA was created in the first place – to clear up the secrecy behind MPs expenses. The Committee on Standards in Public Life review into MPs’ expenses recommended that the new expenses regulator “should continue to publish individual claims for reimbursement made by MPs with accompanying receipts or documentary evidence.” All political parties pledged to implement these proposals.
IPSA was set up to be independent of MPs and to promote transparency and restore trust. How does this decision do that?
On its own website it says, “In all it does, IPSA will keep at the front of its mind its main duty – to serve the interests of the public.”
“IPSA wants to contribute to restoring the public’s confidence in Parliament…”
What short memories they have. They appear to have forgotten the last 2 years and gone back to square one! As well as consigning transparency to the scrap heap the independence of IPSA must be called into question over this decision. The public will see this as the establishment carrying on business as usual.
It is claimed it would cost too much money to scan individual receipts. This is the very thing IPSA was set up to do and the last six months should have been used to develop low cost systems to ensure all expenses were all properly correct, scanned and accounted for. I’m sure after consultation with market leaders in the private sector, IPSA could dramatically reduce the one million pound figure it would cost to implement this key recommendation. In the meantime this is a small price to pay to ensure that public confidence in the system and further scandals never ever happen again.
My thanks to Unlock Democracy for highlighting this issue.
