Expenses Watchdog Quits

The man who is in charge of investigating the expenses claims of MP’s has quit. This was after he refused to name those MP’s that are under suspicion as he said that he felt it was unfair to name anyone until all of the allegations against them had been proved.  Luke March has now resigned as compliance officer for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority who said that those under investigation should be names and the cases should be heard in public.

He said that he would not name them and said that there should be no publicity about those who were cleared of suspicion. He said that some cases were due to data entry mistakes by the MP in question or by his department. His letter of resignation stated that he did not feel that the job was the right role for him and that that it was with regret that he wanted to resign the post. His response from Sir Ian Kennedy, the chairman said that he knew the decision has been thought about thoroughly and that it was with regret that he accepted his resignation. Martyn Taylor will take over as acting compliance office moving from hi role as the head of governance and will be the third person to step in to the role in just over a year.

The role has obviously been a difficult one, with so many MP’s being found guilty of not declaring tehir expenses properly or claiming for things which they should not have done. It is obviously a stressful role and one that hopefully, the new post holder will find it to suit them better.

 

"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."