Secretive Senate panel to review report on Pamela Wallin expenses

OTTAWA – The Senate’s secretive board of internal economy will go behind closed doors today to review a report on expense claims made by former Conservative Senator Pamela Wallin.

A three person steering committee will first comb over the report from the private accounting firm Deloitte this morning.

The findings will go before the full Standing Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration later in the day before the audit report is released on Tuesday.

Wallin was audited for about $321,000 in travel and housing expenses that she has claimed since Prime Minister Harper appointed her to the upper chamber in January 2009.

The former broadcaster, who currently sits as an independent, has so far paid back $38,000 to the Senate.

The CBC, however, reported Sunday night that it has learned Wallin could be ordered to repay more than $100,000.

Wallin is one of a handful of senators facing allegations of questionable spending, along with former Conservative colleagues Mike Duffy and Patrick Brazeau and former Liberal Mac Harb.

The spending scandal has heightened calls to reform or even abolish the Senate.

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