Expenses from Minister June Draude’s recent trip to Ghana and England aren’t just inappropriate, they reveal how Saskatchewan has fallen behind when it comes to expense disclosure.

For those who need a quick recap of the situation, a $3,600 bill for a car service in London has made headlines – and for good reason. According to Draude, the bill covered the cost of having a driver take her and an aide from place to place over a four-day period. She has indicated she didn’t know the price of the bill until the opposition NDP dug it up and released it to the media.

Sure, London is a pricey city, but $3,600 is a lot of money. There’s no reason why the Minister and her assistant couldn’t have called or hailed a taxi. Alternatively, she could have taken London’s famous “tube” subway system (which at some times of the day might be quicker anyway).

As for suggesting she wasn’t aware of the bill amount as her assistant expensed it, that too isn’t acceptable. At some point, during the first day that a car and driver were taking her around, she should have asked “how much does this car service cost?” Even in a less expensive city like Regina, one would probably ask the same question for such a luxury service.

It’s great that the government has indicated the bill will be repaid, but both the NDP and Sask Party need to work to improve politician expense disclosure rules.

First, the governing Sask Party should commit to start putting scanned copies of receipts for expenses by cabinet ministers, their senior political staff, and senior officials on the internet. The government of Alberta started this practice a couple years ago and so does the City of Toronto. The federal government has a similar disclosure system in place. Had that practice been in place in Saskatchewan, no one would have dared expense a bill for a $3,600 car service.

Next, both the Sask Party and NDP need to improve expense disclosure rules for MLAs and their caucus budgets.

Back in May 2010, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation asked the NDP and Sask Party to start putting their MLA expense reports online for taxpayers to see. At the time, if you wanted to know what your MLA was expensing, you would have to go to his or her office or down to the legislature to take a look. Thankfully, both parties agreed with our request and started putting those reports online towards the end of 2010.

With the click of a mouse, one can see, for example, that in 2012, MLA Buckley Belanger expensed $17.10 on “fasteners,” $2,500 on a “training seminar fee” and $88.57 on “office supplies.”

However, the legislature hasn’t acted on one of our other key recommendations; allow taxpayers to see those bills. Currently, if you ask an MLA to see the receipt from one of their expenses, it’s up to them to decide if they want to show it. That’s not acceptable. Both parties should agree to amend the Freedom of Information Act so that MLAs’ expenses, and caucus expenses are available for the public to review.

Again, it’s great that the car service bill is going to be repaid, however, both parties need to work at improving the overall system.

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