OTTAWA—Prime Minister Stephen Harper knew nothing about the repayment of Sen. Mike Duffy’s ineligible Senate expenses by his chief of staff until news of the deal was revealed by the media, a top cabinet minister says.

Speaking publicly Tuesday for the first time since the controversy broke last week, Harper said nothing about Nigel Wright’s move to bail out Duffy earlier this year.

Instead, as Harper jetted to South America on a trade mission, it was left to Foreign Affairs John Baird to fend off opposition charges of coverup and ethical violations.

Reading from notes, Baird said that Harper was in the dark right up until CTV broke the story that Wright had cut a $90,172.24 personal cheque to cover Duffy’s living expenses.

And he said there are no documents outlining the deal reached between Wright and Duffy, even though CTV reported that PMO special counsel Benjamin Perrin was involved in the agreement.

“Our understanding is there is no document,” Baird told the Commons.

Baird said the question of Wright’s payment to Duffy has been referred to “two independent authorities” for review but refused to specify who they were.

The Prime Minister’s Office said later that Baird was referring to federal ethics commissioner Mary Dawson and the Senate’s own internal economy committee. Yet the Tories have been accused of using their majority on the Senate committee to whitewash the initial report on Duffy’s spending. Dawson confirmed late Tuesday she will conduct an investigation of Wright’s payment to Duffy to see if it violates conflict-of-interest rules that apply to Wright as a senior government official. But the ethics commissioner’s investigations often take many months to complete.

Wright, Duffy and even Harper himself could find themselves testifying before a Senate committee if the Liberals succeed in getting parliamentary hearings into the secret payment and the reported watering down of a report on Duffy's spending.

Liberal Senate Leader James Cowan said Tuesday evening the payment “needs to be thoroughly investigated,” saying it represents potential interference in the working of the Senate.

“If money was paid that would influence a decision of a senate committee then that is contempt of Parliament,” Cowan said.

Speaker Noel Kinsella said he would report back on the request.

In the Commons earlier Tuesday, the Liberals asked Baird who was behind the decision by Conservative Senators to water down their findings on Duffy.

“Can he tell us who gave that order to the Conservative senators. Was it the prime minister, his chief of staff, or the government leader in the Senate,” said Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc.

Harper’s brief public speech to caucus earlier failed to quell questions around his involvement. Harper told his caucus he was “very upset” about the conduct of “some parliamentarians and my office” but urged them to remain focused, calling the events a “distraction.”

Mostly he boasted his government had been the toughest ever in bringing in new rules around accountability for public office holders.

Opposition critics howled, demanding more details and access to documents to show exactly what transpired.

Hours later, Baird insisted the prime minister had no knowledge of his top adviser’s actions.

The explanation still didn’t wash with the opposition.

Wright resigned Sunday over his role in the affair. Perrin left Harper’s office in April, two months after the agreement was reached that allowed Duffy to repay $90,172.24 in ineligible expenses.

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On Tuesday, Perrin called the CTV report of his involvement “false.”

“I was not consulted on, and did not participate in, Nigel Wright’s decision to write a personal cheque to reimburse Senator Duffy’s expenses,” Perrin said in a statement.

Duffy’s repayment had the effect of bringing an outside audit by Deloitte — the same company that audits the Conservative Party of Canada — to an abrupt end.

The spending controversy has claimed Wright, Duffy, who quit caucus on Thursday and Sen. Pamela Wallin, who quit the Conservatives on Friday as she awaits an audit of her travel expenses.

New Democrat MP Charlie Angus said Harper’s “song and dance” did little to address the ethical and potential legal issues swirling around Wright’s payment to Duffy.

“Canadians want answers. He’s not giving them answers . . . He’s ducking, he’s diving,” Angus told reporters after Harper’s speech.

Angus also took aim at Harper’s characterization of the controversy as a “distraction.”

“They are not distractions. They are about fundamental ethical breaches. They’re about ripping off the Canadian taxpayer. They’re about possible illegalities that happened in his office,” he said.

Liberal MP Ralph Goodale called the prime minister’s speech “totally vacuous” and “tone deaf.”

He said Harper owes it to Canadians to publicly answer questions from the media to explain his and his office’s role in the Duffy affair.

After the morning caucus meeting, Tory MPs were keen to show a united front, praising Harper for his leadership and calling for tighter rules on Senate expenses.

Treasury Board President Tony Clement conceded that constituents are angry over the revelation of the payment to Duffy from Wright.

“We’re angry, upset. We put in very high standards for governments, including ourselves when we first got elected and we expect parliamentarians to live up to those standards,” Clement said.

“I think we can all acknowledge this is an unfortunate, unacceptable situation . . . Nigel made a mistake and he’s paid for that mistake,” he told reporters.

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