They cheat, they lie, they're spoilt brats and they steal. They are politicians

Politicians caught out misusing taxpayer-funded allowances | National News | News.com.au

They cheat, they lie, they're spoilt brats and they steal. They are POLITICIANS.

* Pollies use allowance to buy lollies, batteries
* Uncovered in Auditor-General's investigation
* Many leaflets shouldn't have been funded

FEDERAL MPs have been caught out misusing taxpayer-funded allowances to buy confectionery, batteries and child and adult fiction.

It was just one example of wide-spread abuse of public funds by politicians uncovered in a year-long investigation by the Auditor-General. The explosive report has prompted the Rudd Government to overhaul the $300 million parliamentary entitlement system.

The scheme provides generous funding for printing, telephone and internet, newspapers, photocopying and office administration, with the watchdog finding the current system riddled with "inconsistencies and ambiguities" that allowed politicians to escape proper scrutiny, The Daily Telegraph reports.

MPs and Senators entitled to up to $4000 a year to buy newspapers and periodicals were found to have spent some of the money on confectionary including chocolates, batteries, cardboard and fiction.
Related Coverage

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* Federal MPs rorting millionsPerth Now, 12 Aug 2009
* Reader's Comments: Federal MPs rorting millions - The Courier-MailCourier Mail,
* Rudd's ute-man denies name droppingThe Australian, 5 Aug 2009

Your Say

Looks like your politicians are just as crooked as ours in the UK...These lazy snakes on the take (none of whom would last 5 minutes in private industry) need to be flushed out of ...

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Shane of UK
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One of the biggest problems identified by the audit - conducted into politicians from NSW, QLD and Victoria - was the current rules for printing election flyers and how-to-vote cards.

It revealed a cosy network exploited by the Liberal Party and the ALP - and controlled by a small coterie of senior party officials.

The investigation found that six printing firms secured lucrative election contracts - after donating more than $300,000 to Labor and the Liberal Party.

In an explosive 100-page report obtained by The Daily Telegraph the watchdog found that thousands of election flyers and how-to-vote cards distributed during the 2007 federal campaign breached entitlement guidelines - and should never have been funded.

It also labelled the spending of taxpayers money on chocolates to be a "blatant" misuse of the funds, while the purchase of the adult and children's fiction considered "at risk" of breaching the entitlements.

The Auditor-General does not name the six firms who received millions of dollars in election work.

Lifting the lid on a system open to widespread abuse, the Auditor-General was demanding "fundamental reform" in its draft and confidential report.

Despite promising to clean up the political system, the Government was yet to introduce an "independent auditor" to oversee the entitlements system, but was expected to shortly announce plans to clean up the system.