IT’S been agreed that all details of MLAs? expenses from April 2003 onwards will be available online by the end of November 2009. That goes well beyond the previous thinking on the matter, that only claims from April 2009 would be published.
It seems that the clamour for transparency has had some effect, although I’d expect any publication here to be even more heavily redacted than the official Westminster expenses (for ‘security reasons’, natch; stuff like bulletproof curtains and the like!) Of course, if any public-minded servant were to leak the detail in advance, I’m sure there are reliable journalists who would treat the revelations with the required care…
It follows recent publication of the ten guiding principles on expenses. I wonder how the profit on Ballymena’s DUP advice centre sits with number 7 on that list:
Arrangements should be avoided which may give rise to an accusation that an MLA ? or someone close to an MLA ? is obtaining an element of profit from public funds
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