UK auditor criticizes Britain’s ‘deeply flawed’ politics, demands 392 lawmakers pay money back

UK auditor: 392 lawmakers to pay back expenses

LONDON — An inquiry into a scandal that tarnished British politics found Thursday more than half the House of Commons made excessive or bogus expense claims worth about 1 million pounds ($1.6 million).

In a report that party leaders hope will draw a line under the furor ahead of a national election, auditor Thomas Legg said 392 of 752 current and former legislators he investigated — including Prime Minister Gordon Brown — must repay a total of 1.12 million pounds ($1.7 million).

Revelations that legislators submitted claims for items including porn movies, horse manure and an ornamental duck house outraged the British public, who will be asked to vote in an election which must be held by June.

Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service — which authorizes criminal prosecutions — said it would announce Friday whether six lawmakers under investigation will face charges over their claims.

Legg’s inquiry, which cost about 1.16 million pounds ($1.8 million), found that lawmakers had overcharged the public a total of 711,000 pounds ($1.12 million) for mortgage payments and 105,000 pounds ($165,600) too much for cleaning costs.

He attacked a “culture of deference” among officials whose job it was to check the claims, suggesting most were too timid to overrule the wild demands of lawmakers. Procedures that allowed legislators to fund expensive second homes were “deeply flawed,” and there was a “widespread lack of proper evidence” to support many lawmakers’ claims.

The saga has “been traumatic and painful, public confidence has been damaged, and the scars will no doubt take time to heal,” Legg said.

Brown’s spokesman Simon Lewis said the British leader hopes new, tighter rules can help restore public confidence. “He believes that what has happened over the last 18 months has scarred our democracy,” Lewis said.

The exposure of the expense claims showed how legislators manipulated housing rules for profit and attempted to bill the public for an array of items — in one case, a legislator famously demanded reimbursement for cleaning the moat surrounding his country mansion.

In a new revelation, Legg’s report detailed how lawmaker Anthony Steen attempted to claim 28.50 pounds ($45) for a rope for his flagpole.

Former Democratic Unionist lawmaker Iris Robinson, who quit her legislative posts in the Northern Ireland Assembly in Belfast and the House of Commons in London last month after she admitted having an affair with a 19-year-old man, was ordered to return almost 1,650 ($2,600) after overcharging for a luxury bed.

Amid the scandal, Brown saw nine ministers quit and suffered heavy losses in local and European elections as voters deserted mainstream parties. Two House of Commons legislators have been ousted and about 150 others won’t contest the next national election as a result.

Details were disclosed only after a five-year freedom of information campaign and repeated attempts by Parliament to use British courts to block their release. However, before Parliament published a set of partially censored documents, unexpurgated details were leaked to a newspaper.

Legg initially ordered lawmakers to repay 1.3 million pounds ($2 million), but the amount was reduced to 1.12 million following successful appeals by 44 legislators.

Brown was ordered to repay 13,000 pounds ($20,500), mostly in excessive claims for a maid. Opposition Conservative Party chief David Cameron repaid almost 1,000 pounds ($1,600) used for mortgage interest charges and to remove wisteria from a chimney.

Legg’s report showed that Barbara Follett, a lawmaker with the governing Labour Party and wife of novelist Ken Follett, repaid one of the highest amounts — 42,458 pounds ($67,300) wrongly claimed for security patrols, CCTV monitors and a burglar alarm.

“This has been a sad and sorry episode in Britain’s political life which I deeply regret,” Follett said.

An independent body is drafting new rules to govern expense claims, details already announced will ban lawmakers from buying second homes — in the future they’ll have to rent modest apartments, or use hotels. The new regime also outlaws legislators from using taxpayers’ money to employ family members as staff.

While House of Commons lawmakers claim an average of 135,000 pounds ($223,000) a year in expense payments, the U.S. Congress allots each House and Senate office between $1.4 million and $1.9 million to cover expenses.