Mike Duffy claimed Senate expenses before starting job

Mike Duffy wasted no time claiming his first Senate expense: the newly announced senator from Prince Edward Islandput in for the daily $81.55 living expense as of Dec. 23, 2008,one day after Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the appointment via a press release.

And while Harper announced on Dec. 22 that he was naming Duffy to the Senate, the appointment wasn't official until Jan. 2, 2009, according to the Senate's website.

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Duffy claimed the living expense twice in the two weeks before the appointment was official. The claims werefor days he spent inthe Ottawa-area home he'd owned for five years.

The records also show Duffy expensed a trip to Charlottetown fromDec. 29, 2008to Jan. 4, 2009. His calendar notes he and his wife appliedfor driver's licences. The calendar notes an appointment that same day with the thenclerk of the Senate and an official from the Prime Minister's Office regarding "property documentation."

A previously released record includes a Jan. 6, 2009, memo from a Conservative Senate staffer regarding the qualifications for being a senator.

Senators are required to be resident in the provinces from which they're appointed, as well as to own property in the province.

The appointments in the calendarsuggestDuffy was concernedabout showing he was qualified to sit as a senator from Prince Edward Island.

Expenses questioned from start

The records also suggest Duffy's expenses, including those for alcohol, had been questioned by finance officials from the very beginning.

An assistant toDuffy filed housing expense claims for the 31 days inJanuary2009, his first officialmonth as a senator. Theportion of the claim for his Kanata, Ont., home was worth $25 a night a total of $775.

Duffy bought the house in the Ottawa suburbs in2003, according to property records, and has lived in Ottawa since the mid-'70s.

His assistant also filed an additional expense claim forthe month, whichincluded the cost of a hotel in Charlottetown in the province he'd declared as his primary residence and a per diem for 19 days of meals in Ottawa. The meal expenses amounted to $1,549.45.

The expense claim also included the cost of meals in Charlottetown on the same trip for which he claimed the hotel reimbursement.

Mortgage paid off

A Feb. 23, 2009, memo from his assistant to a Senate finance official explained the hotel cost was due to wintry roads in Prince Edward Island.

"The house in Cavendish is snowed in," the assistant wrote. "Also, when his visits are short (for the weekend or something) he prefers to stay closer to the airport in order to arrive on time."

The next month'sexpenses were adjusted by $138 after Duffy charged alcohol as part of his hospitality budget.

"Expenses including the consumption of alcohol are very sensitive discretionary expenses and the guidelines provided are to ensure that the senator's use of public funds can withstand increasingly intense public scrutiny," the finance official wrote in an email to Duffy's staffer.

Other documents included in the exhibits show Duffy was able to pay off the remaining $76,996.63on his Ottawa mortgage in early 2010.