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Opposition Leader Roger Grimes has sent a letter to the Comptroller General
asking him to review Minister Paul Shelley’s recent travel claims to ensure
he is following the rules set out by Treasury Board governing Ministerial
travel. It was discovered in a recent Freedom of Information request that
Mr. Shelley has been charging constituency travel costs to his department.
"After hearing Mr. Shelley’s comments regarding the abuse of his
departmental budget, I am asking the Comptroller General to review his
travel claims submitted to the Department of Tourism, Culture and
Recreation," said Mr. Grimes. "Mr. Shelley is unapologetic for charging
political costs to his department and obviously doesn’t realize the problem
with breaking Treasury Board Guidelines. He has admitted that rental cars
for travel to his district were charged to his department more than once.
"I am asking the Comptroller General to investigate and ask Mr. Shelley
to resubmit his travel claims to ensure that constituency business is not
charged to the department. If this government is going to lead by example,
as they continuously claim, how can they justify breaking Treasury Board
Guidelines governing Ministerial travel? All MHA’s have a constituency
budget for political travel, and ministers have an extra $8,000 to access
for private vehicle travel. Why did he not use these funds?
"Mr. Shelley cannot be allowed to continue this practice. He should
immediately apologize, resubmit his travel claims and commit to follow
Treasury Board Guidelines in the future."
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