OTTAWA—Pamela Wallin said she will reimburse taxpayers for all disputed travel expenses, but denied wrongdoing as she claimed those flights and taxi rides were just part of her job as a busy senator.

“I never intended to seek nor sought reimbursement for travel expenses in any situation where I did not believe such a claim was proper. Where I made mistakes, I have, as you know, already paid money back,” Wallin told reporters Monday evening.

The statement came before Wallin headed into a meeting of the Senate committee on internal economy, budgets and administration, where her colleagues discussed a review of her travel expenses by the forensic accounting firm Deloitte dating back to when she was appointed as a senator for Saskatchewan more than four years ago.

MORE ON THESTAR.COM

RCMP widens probe of Mike Duffy’s expense claims

The rise of Conservative Senator Pamela Wallin

Pamela Wallin: ‘I take full responsibility for this’

“It is my view that this report is the result of a fundamentally flawed and unfair process,” said Wallin, who received the Deloitte report Monday morning.

Senators reviewing the report adjourned around 8:30 p.m. Monday to “reflect and digest” and will resume Tuesday morning, said Sen. Gerald Comeau, chair of the Senate’s Internal Economy Committee.

He rebutted Wallin’s criticism of the process, calling the auditors work “very fair.”

Comeau said he was “quite satisfied with the very professional manner with which they approached the report.”

Details were dribbling out Monday, with sources saying the committee is expected to recommend Wallin reimburse at least $120,000 in travel expenses.

One source said she could be asked to pay back an additional $20,000 if senators decide some expenses Deloitte flagged as open to interpretation were ultimately inappropriate.

The Deloitte review will be released Tuesday along with a corresponding report by the internal economy committee.

The committee could, like they did for similar reports into dubious living expenses claimed by Sen. Mike Duffy, Sen. Mac Harb and Sen. Patrick Brazeau, end up referring the findings to the RCMP.

Wallin has already repaid $38,000 in expenses and said Monday she plans to pay back whatever else the committee decides she owes, plus interest.

“I will do so out of my own resources,” said Wallin, who resigned from the Conservative caucus on May 17.

Sources familiar with the Deloitte review said earlier Monday the report will detail travel expenses — such as flights and taxis — that Wallin expensed to taxpayers while she was travelling on business unrelated to her Senate duties, including activities related to the boards of directors she used to sit on, her time as chancellor of the University of Guelph and one instance of fundraising for the Conservative party.

Wallin, a former broadcast journalist, said her main issue with the Deloitte report is that auditors did not view the job of a senator — and therefore what constitutes “Senate business” or “common Senate practice” — in the same way she does.

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

“I was determined to be an activist senator, one who sought as her job to advance causes that are important to Canadians,” Wallin said Monday, adding that she viewed it as her duty to deliver speeches about women’s issues and the mission in Afghanistan.

“Travel to these public speeches and appearances was, and is, in my continuing view, a legitimate Senate expense,” Wallin said, adding the Deloitte report finds “a number of expenses” dating back to 2009 that were approved by the Senate administration but “have now been disallowed.”

Wallin added Deloitte did not ask other senators for their views on this “arbitrary and undefined sense” of what constitutes Senate business and what does not.

Sources familiar with the Deloitte report had also said earlier Monday that external auditors flagged a number of instances where Wallin had altered her electronic calendar after the review had begun.

That includes one occasion that involved Wallin fundraising for several Conservative riding associations in Saskatchewan, the province she has represented since being appointed to the Senate in 2009, one source said.

Conservative party spokesman Fred DeLorey wrote in an email Monday that questions about these expenses should be addressed to Wallin, as she was the one who had submitted them.

Wallin said there was an innocent explanation for the retroactive changes to her electronic calendar.

“At no time did I attempt to mislead Deloitte in any way,” Wallin said.

She said she was advised — without revealing by whom — during the process that she should exclude any information irrelevant to the actual expenses.

“So we formatted our calendar accordingly and added as much information as we had regarding the claims without irrelevant or private or personal information included,” said Wallin, adding she and her staff were aware the external auditors had a copy of the original calendars.

She said she was asked about the discrepancy only last month and provided several written explanations — including one attached to the Deloitte report — and supplied the auditors with her “personal handwritten diaries for the entire period under review.”

Sources said the Deloitte report will also address the discrepancy between how much Wallin billed the Senate for flights to Saskatchewan compared to what she had spent on flights elsewhere in Canada and around the world.

With files from Bruce Campion-Smith

Part of statement issued Monday by Senator Pamela Wallin:

“I want to be absolutely clear. I never intended to seek, nor sought reimbursement for travel expenses in any situation where I did not believe such a claim was proper. Where I made mistakes, I have already paid money back.”

Read more about: