For former AG Marshall, what goes around comes around

Premier Danny Williams has assigned responsibility for implementing a hard-hitting report on Newfoundland and Labrador's legislative finances to a politician uniquely qualified for the job Elizabeth Marshall.

TheMHA for Topsail since 2003, Marshall was serving as Newfoundland and Labrador's auditor general in 2000 when a house of assembly committee barred her from examining the legislature's books.

Marshall said she applauds a judge's report released Thursday that outlines in detail how one system after another failed to ensure accountability at the house of assembly.

The review by Judge Derek Green was launched after aspending scandal involving members of the province's three main parties including five politicians who received about $1.6 million more than their entitlements through their constituency allowances.

Marshall said she cannot help but conclude that many of the mistakes over the past 12 months, documented in the report,could have been prevented.

"A sad part of all of this is that a lot of this could have been avoided if, at the time, the auditor general was allowed to just do her job," said Marshall.

As auditor general, Marshallwas blocked from checking the legislature's books by the members of the Internal Economy Commission, a bipartisan committee that oversees house finances.

Green recommended replacing the commission with another body that would take on a watchdog role and have greater oversight powers.

Marshall described Green's recommended legislative changes as detailed and thorough.

"I don't think you'll ever get an abuse-proof system, but what I have read I'm very, very pleased with it," she said.

Apart from being a former auditor general, Marshall has the distinction of being one of two politicians who rejected a 2004 constituency allowance bonus that was secretly approved by the Internal Economy Commission.

Williams also turned down the bonus, worth $2,875, which was approved just days after the Progressive Conservatives imposed a concessionary contract on unionized workers following a one-month strike.