A5

By ROB ANTLE
The Canadian Press

Stumble Upon

del.icio.us

Digg

Facebook

Print

Email

Speak Up

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - A Conservative MP from Newfoundland has confirmed he repaid a $2,800 secret bonus he received while serving in the provincial legislature, but the payment wasn't made until last week - almost two years after all sitting provincial politicians agreed to give the money back.

Fabian Manning, the Tory MP for Avalon, is in the midst of a tough fight for re-election and failed to make the payment earlier because of an "oversight," said Conservative spokesman Steve Outhouse.

"Mr. Manning had always intended to repay the $2,875," Outhouse said in an e-mail to the St. John's Telegram.

Outhouse said Manning was unaware of the outstanding payment until his office received copies of provincial financial documents obtained by the daily St. John's Telegram under freedom of information legislation.

"When his office received the package of information last week from the house of assembly, it indicated that, due to an oversight, the payment hadn't been made yet."

Last Wednesday, the Telegram requested an interview with Manning about his provincial constituency spending.

Manning repaid the $2,875 the next day.

In May 2004, a secretive, internal legislative committee voted to give all members of the Newfoundland and Labrador legislature a retroactive, tax-free payment of $2,875.

Forty-six of the legislature's 48 members accepted it.

Only Premier Danny Williams and the member for Topsail, former auditor general Elizabeth Marshall, did not.

Manning, then the Tory member for Placentia and St. Mary's, was one of those who did.

The clandestine payment was approved just days after Williams's government forced striking public sector workers back on the job, with wage freezes and cuts to benefits for new employees.

The province's auditor general, John Noseworthy, later revealed the existence of the secret $2,875 payments in January 2007, two years after Manning left provincial politics.

At the time, the province was already reeling from a series of damning revelations about how politicians had been spending millions of dollars worth of constituency allowances amid a lack of controls and oversight.

Noseworthy revealed that minutes of the committee's meeting were so vague that it was impossible for the public to find out about the payment.

Similar payments were made in previous years, but Noseworthy couldn't determine when they were made or how large they were.

Soon after the report's release, all sitting members agreed to repay the money.

Manning resigned from provincial politics in 2005, and won a seat in Parliament in the 2006 federal election.

He is running for re-election Oct. 14, but Williams ongoing feud with the federal government and his "Anything But Conservative" campaign has made it tough for Tory candidates on the hustings.

"It's important to point out again that Mr. Manning has never overspent his budget as an MHA, has complied with all the rules, and was given a clean bill of health by the auditor general," Outhouse said.

Four politicians are facing charges as a result of a police investigation into Noseworthy's findings.

Bill Murray, the legislature's former director of financial operations, was charged in August 2007 with four counts of influence peddling and one count each of fraud over $5,000, uttering forged documents and breach of trust.

Noseworthy alleged Murray approved nearly $3 million worth of expenditures on various trinkets and keepsakes, such as fridge magnets and gold rings.