Claire Ward has been cleared of any wrong-doing whatsoever over her Parliamentary expenses.
Sir Thomas Legg, a former civil servant had been brought in by Premier Gordon Brown last year to retrospectively audit all MPs expenses claims and requested that 200 in total, including Watford's MPs repay sums where he considered it appropriate.
Ms Ward was asked by Sir Thomas to provide details of claims for £850 designated at the time as petty cash and fully complied with his instructions. A review of his inquiry undertaken by former appeal court judge Sir Paul Kennedy, ruled upon closer scrutiny of the evidence, that Ms Ward was not required to repay any monies, totally clearing her of any wrong-doing.
The MP said that she was "naturally pleased" that her name had been cleared.
“This was a process which was necessary and one which I accepted was required to clean up politics. It is right things were examined in detail. I was always going to abide by the final decision. I was confident I had acted properly at all times. Sir Paul concluded the issue was one of misdescription, an error which should have been picked up by the Fees Office [the parliamentary body responsible for overseeing claims] at the time and did not affect the validity of the actual claim which was entirely genuine," said Ms Ward.
February 1st 2010
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