Minutes after Norman Spector, a former political advisor to Brian Mulroney, finished testifying at the House of Commons Ethics Committee about what he knew about the Mulroney-Schreiber affair, some of this former colleagues released the following:

Open letter from B. Roy, D. Burney, S. Hartt & H. Segal

"We are surprised and disappointed to see that one of our former colleagues as Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister, a position in which each of us were privileged to serve, has made a series of allegations during his appearance before the House of Commons Ethics Committee by promising to reveal the sources of cash payments delivered to 24 Sussex Drive while he, Norman Spector, served as the senior confidential political adviser to Mr. Mulroney. The claims he made are not new, having been the subject of at least one decades-old effort at “investigative journalism”, but it is difficult to see how they can in any way be remotely linked to the mandate the Committee has given itself.

The re-imbursement of the Mulroney household’s personal expenses, and Mr. Mulroney’s expenses in his role as party leader as well as those legitimately incurred in his governmental role and therefore reimbursable by his employer, was handled by a process of allocation on the basis of invoices or other evidence of expenditures and careful evaluation of the purpose of each outlay.

In essence, each month’s expenses were divided into three categories – government, party and personal. Claims for reimbursement by the government were forwarded to P.C.O. for processing. Receipts deemed payable by the party were forwarded to the PC Canada Fund. Personal expenses were sent to Mr. Mulroney’s private accountant in Montreal for payment.

This process for reimbursement never resulted in any dispute or disagreement with any of the three distinct sources as to the appropriateness of the allocation amongst them. It is no different from the reimbursement procedures followed by any employee who travels or has out-of-pocket expenses in the course of his or her business. The sums were not large having regard to the scope of the responsibilities of the Mulroney’s and the operation of their household.

Claims and payments were received and reimbursements made by administrative staff. We were responsible for the system’s oversight. Reimbursement of claims were made directly by the PC Canada Fund or by a cheque delivered for deposit by a PMO staff member. When cash was necessary for purchases of the household it was delivered to the residence.

In our experience, there was nothing untoward or sensational about the practice followed.  The process was straightforward.  If any aspect had troubled Mr. Spector during his time in the PMO, he would have had the full authority to make whatever changes he deemed necessary. "

 Bernard Roy   Derek Burney   Stanley Hartt   Hugh Segal