Senate still reviewing $21K in additional Pamela Wallin expense claims

OTTAWA – The Senate hasn’t yet decided whether to order Sen. Pamela Wallin to pay back more money for her travel to so-called networking events.

But Conservative Sen. Carolyn Stewart Olsen says there are lingering questions about “quite a few” of those claims, which came to nearly $21,000.

Stewart Olsen says a Senate committee has reviewed the claims and asked the upper chamber’s finance unit to do additional research — work she says could take “some time.”

The Senate called in the RCMP after an audit flagged a host of inappropriate travel claims spanning nearly all of Wallin’s career as a senator, which began late in 2008.

The auditors flagged $121,348 in inappropriate expenses and called for further review of nearly $21,000 in additional claims, mostly for travel to what Wallin described as “networking events.”

Wallin has already repaid $38,000, and has said she would reimburse any disallowed expenses — with interest — out of her own pocket.