23-04-2008, 10:42 AM
|
 | Senior Member | | Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: England
Posts: 1,602
Rep Power: 0 | |
 All aboard the Gravy Train
Members of the European Parliament voted yesterday to cover up a report showing widespread abuse of allowances worth £125 million every year.
They also threw out demands from a public information watchdog for scrutiny of generous pension perks.
In a series of votes, MEPs approved plans to eventually stop putting family members or suspect companies on their staff payroll. But the proposals do not have legal force and will be buried in a general long-term review of allowances, expected to take place over the next year.
"Don't hold your breath, things have a way of disappearing like this," said a parliamentary official.
In February, The Daily Telegraph revealed the existence of a secret internal audit by the European Parliament that found endemic irregularities with staff allowances, which are worth £160,000 a year to each MEP.
Many MEPs use the public funds, meant for parliamentary assistants, to legally employ close relatives or to divert the payments to family-owned companies with little or no scrutiny of the work carried out. MEPs vote to cover up expenses inquiry - Telegraph
Even worse than Westminster if only we could all be an MEP...... Kerching .
__________________
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries - Winston Churchill |
Similar Threads 
Threaded Mode
