OTTAWA—A Liberal attempt to force Prime Minister Stephen Harper to testify on what he knew about a $90,172 payment from his office to Sen. Mike Duffy was defeated by the Conservative majority on the Commons ethics committee.

“Once again, the Conservatives want to cover up and deny a public hearing into this very important issue,” said Liberal MP Scott Andrews, who moved the motion to call Harper to give evidence.

The political skirmishing over the alleged Conservative cover-up of the Senate expense scandal gathered force Monday after Harper returned to Ottawa — but not the daily Commons question period — following an official trip to Peru and Colombia last week.

NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair accused Harper of refusing to come clean with Canadians about the secret payment to Duffy from Nigel Wright, the prime minister’s now-resigned chief of staff.

“Last week the prime minister went to hide in Peru in order to avoid having to answer questions on the Senate scandal,” Mulcair said in the Commons. “ When will the prime minister take responsibility , show accountability and finally start answering questions?”

Heritage Minister James Moore told MPs Harper “is taking responsibility and showing accountability by moving forward with what we said we would do, which is reform the Senate.” He urged all MPs to support Conservative efforts to bring in term limits for senators and introduce Senate elections.

Duffy, who quit the Conservative party on May 16 amid questions about his expense claims, is at the heart of the current uproar. After secretly receiving a cheque from Wright, the senator repaid $90,172 and refused to co-operate with auditors. Conservative senators on the key internal economy committee cited the fact that Duffy had repaid his improper expenses when they moved to exempt Duffy from criticism in a final report.

On Monday, the opposition continued to ask who else, besides Wright and Duffy, knew about the secret deal to pay back the senator’s ineligible expenses.

“Nigel Wright made it clear in his statements to the public when he resigned as chief of staff that he acted alone,” Moore responded in the Commons.

In his May 19 resignation statement, Wright accepted “sole responsibility” for writing the personal cheque to Duffy. But he did not actually say he was the only person involved in the matter.

“I did not advise the prime minister of the means by which Sen. Duffy’s expenses were repaid,” Wright said at the time.

Mulcair later accused Moore of trying to confuse the House of Commons.

“He was misleading the House,” Mulcair told reporters. “They’re playing with words all the time since the beginning of this file.”

But Conservatives pointed out Senate spending is being probed by ethics officers in the Commons and the Senate and that the Senate internal economy committee is re-examining Duffy’s expense claims.

The opposition questioned whether the Senate committee, having gone easy on Duffy once, should be allowed to do another investigation.

“That (the committee) will be checking itself in terms of its own work is a little bit ridiculous,” Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau told the media.

The RCMP is also looking into the Senate spending irregularities to see if a criminal investigation is warranted.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

The Conservatives moved Monday to tighten up senators’ spending by requiring more details on their travel expense claims, restricting access to per diem expenses and cutting back on taxpayer-paid international travel.

Meanwhile, Trudeau was under fire from the Conservatives for saying in a Quebec newspaper that Quebecers have an “advantage” because they have 24 seats in the Senate versus the six each from Alberta and B.C. Trudeau explained later he was not expressing an opinion but “a statement of fact.”

Read more about: