Famous Expense Account Scandals

Expense accounts are interesting things. They're hard to get ("You have an expense account?") yet so, so easy to abuse as Bev Oda did a year ago.

Here's a fabulous list of egregious expense account overruns from the CBC. If you'd like to see more, click our image on the right to launch our gallery of spending scandals from around the world.



Bev Oda's Expensive Tastes

International Development Minister Bev Oda decided that London's Grange St. Paul hotel wasn't good enough and upgraded to the Savoy. Not only that, she rode around in limousines during her stay. All of this cost the taxpayers $1,995.

Oda finally repaid the difference but only after the story broke. This is not the first time the minister has been accused of indulging her champagne tastes on the taxpayers' back.

Westminster Expense Scandal

British politicians have a pretty sweet deal. They can claim expenses including second homes if they had to live away from their primary home as a result of their career. Some of them took it a bit far. 'Flipping' is the term being used for the practice of nominating first one property as the designated second home, then changing it to another. MPs can name any property that they either own or rent as their second home, no matter where it is in the country. Flipping between properties has allowed many MPs to maximize their potential second home's allowance, so that they can maintain, decorate, and furnish a succession of properties at the tax-payers expense. Some of the worst offenders have 'flipped' their designated second home three, four, or more times. This, and variations of it, was the basis for the expenses scandal. Keep on clicking to see what some of them dared to claim.


Sir Peter Viggers

Unbelievably, Sir Viggers claimed a duck house on his expenses. He was ordered to pay back 13,245 pounds, so it was a helluva duckhouse.



Barbara Follett

Follett, who is a millionaire in her own right, claimed her mobile security patrols, insurance for her art collection and the fees for her six phone lines. She was ordered to pay back 42,458.21 pounds.



David Heathcoat-Amory

This British MP claimed 30,696 pounds for gardening expenses. It must have been an amazing garden.

It may put the $16 orange juice into perspective. Perhaps we as Canadians are lucky that we haven't had to deal with the level of expenses as yet.



Brussels: a Euro Gravy Train par excellence


Expense abuse by Ministers of European Parliament (MEPs) was rumoured for years until 2011 when a report revealed widespread abuse of expense accounts. The names and the individual details of the report were suppressed but some of the more egregious sins included:

- MEPs giving themselves raises that worked out to 150% of their salary
- Paying assistants who turned out to be relatives


Nothing's too good for the bambini

Italian politicians had it very, very good and they really used and abused their expense accounts. In 2007, one politician, former justice minister Clemente Mastella, took his son to see the Italian Grand Prix. They took a state jet and billed the taxpayers 20,000 euros.