MPs are spending less on their personal and common budgets in advance of the Auditor General’s expected expense report early in the New Year. Total spending is down 6.5 per cent ($9.3 million) across the board this past year when comparing the 2010-11 and 2009-10 Member’s Expenditure Reports.

The primary reasons for this are as follows:

• 60 per cent ($6 million) drop in the use of “ten per centers,”
• 30 per cent ($1 million) drop in telecom services,
• 28 per cent ($802,000) drop in materials and supplies
• 29 per cent ($435,000) drop in telecom equipment
• 12 per cent ($468,000) drop in employee travel
• 34 per cent ($309,000) drop in postage and courier services
• 17 per cent ($263,000) drop in hospitality and events
• 31 per cent ($191,000) drop in furniture purchases

MPs did manage to offset this in a few categories however, namely a:

• 2.7 per cent ($224.000) increase in constituency office leases
• 1 per cent ($199,000) increase in Member, spouse & dependent travel
• 0.25 per cent ($167,000) increase in employee salaries & service contracts

Overall decreases in spending far outstripped the relatively small increases in spending.

The 60 per cent ($6 million) plummet in spending on “ten per centers” – that free propaganda perk for MPs – is most certainly due to the major crackdown on how they could be used last year, a campaign led by the CTF in 2010 which collectively earned MPs a Teddy Waste Award.

The less stark, but still significant spending drops elsewhere may reflect the increased scrutiny that MPs could expect following another successful campaign by the CTF to allow the Auditor General to examine their expenses and the administration of Parliament.

This report provides only a cursory look at MP expenses and does not give taxpayers the detailed information they need to truly understand how their representatives are spending their budgets, but they do provide the big picture, which saw targeted improvements in 2010-11.