EU deputy backs calls for publication of internal audit

By Martin Banks - 28th April 2008

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A senior UK MEP has thrown his weight behind calls forparliament to publish an internal auditor’s report, said to contain details ofwidespread abuse of MEP expenses.

Socialist deputy Richard Corbett said he disagreed with thedecision by parliamentary bosses not to make the report public.

He told this website that the report should be published “in theinterests of openness and transparency.”

Some details in the report, said to reveal misappropriatedexpenses by some MEPs, have been disclosed by the Dutch MEP Paul van Buitenen.

Corbett said, “The fact that it has been widely leaked isanother reason parliament may as well publish it.”

“All politicians must be beyond reproach when it comes totheir accounts and these revelations about alleged fiddled expenses is utterlyunacceptable.”

The spotlight has also fallen recently on those MEPs whoemploy family members, including wives and girlfriends who are paid for byparliamentary expenses.

Corbett said he employs his wife Anne part-time who doessecretarial work for him in Brusselsand his constituency office.

“The question though is not whether MEPs are right to employrelatives but whether these relatives are up to the job,” he said.

Corbett, a constitutional expert who is currently drafting areport on a revision of parliamentary rules of procedure, also said all MEPsshould follow the example of the UK Labour delegation by having all theiraccounts approved by independent auditors.

“The public needs to know that their taxes are being spentlegitimately,” he said.