Sen. Mac Harb owes a total of $231,649 in improperly claimed expenses, according to the chair of the Senate’s Internal Economy committee, after auditors looked at claims dating back several years.
Conservative Sen. David Tkachuk, the chairman of the committee, confirmed the amount on Wednesday.
“I got tired of not revealing it and I got so many questions about it and since all the other numbers already leaked out by the opposition, that’s what the number is,” Tkachuk told CTV News. “$231,649.07, that’s what he owes.”
Harb did not comment on the latest figure on Wednesday and denies any wrongdoing. He is fighting the audit’s findings in court.
A Senate report released last month ordered Harb to repay $51,000 in housing and living expenses he claimed over 18 months, but auditors were asked to also review expense claims going back seven years.
The senator was appointed to the upper chamber in 2003 by then-Prime Minister Jean Chretien, and he is currently sitting as an Independent.
He stepped aside from the Liberal caucus in the wake of an outside audit of expenses by Deloitte.
Harb is one of four senators at the centre of the ongoing Senate expense scandal.
Senators Mike Duffy and Patrick Brazeau were ordered to pay back $90,000 and $48,000, respectively, in ineligible expenses.
Brazeau has said he will fight the order, arguing that his audit concluded he met the four indicators required for primary residence claims.
Duffy repaid about $90,000 in expenses in March, before the results of his audit were made public.
CTV’s Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife later reported that Duffy received $90,000 for the repayment from Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s then-Chief of Staff Nigel Wright. Days later, Wright resigned and Harper has maintained that he knew nothing of the deal.
The audit also examined the travel expense claims of Sen. Pamela Wallin.
The Saskatchewan senator has already repaid $38,000 in travel expenses she claimed over the last 19 months, and she could be paying back taxpayers an additional $20,000 for improperly claimed travel expenses.
Canada’s Auditor General Michael Ferguson has been called in to conduct an audit of Senate expenses.
On Tuesday Ferguson said auditors may look at the expenses of a sample of senators, or undertake a review of every member of the upper chamber.
Ferguson wouldn’t speculate on how long the audit would last, but said most performance audits take an average of 18 months.
During that time, Ferguson said he expects to have unrestricted access to pertinent information.
