By AUDREY YOUNG political reporter
Act leader Richard Prebble says he is confident his MP Donna Awatere-Huata will not be charged with fraud over a disputed accommodation allowance payment.
The Weekend Herald revealed on Saturday that the Act MP had been interviewed by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) over an allowance claim for 35 days' accommodation in Auckland in November 1999, just before the last election.
Last night, Mr Prebble said he had more faith in the SFO than in the Parliamentary Service, the administrative wing of Parliament that referred the matter to the office.
"And, after the events of last week, I've got a lot more faith in the courts," he said, in reference to the High Court's dismissing a gagging writ against him by NZ Post.
"If they are really worried they should charge her."
Mr Prebble said Donna Awatere-Huata had claimed for 35 days on an individual rate instead of on a weekly rate, which would have cost less.
At present, the maximum is up to $160 a night for actual and reasonable costs.
He said he did not know whether she had stayed with friends or family or at a hotel or motel. And he had not heard any suggestion that she had benefited from the claim.
The dispute was about her not having got a good deal. "I've never heard such a suggestion being made before.
"Next they'll be saying an MP went and stayed at the Pan Pacific and the MP could have stayed in a backpackers."
Mr Prebble said he believed the amount in question was the difference between the individual and weekly rates and amounted to several hundred dollars, not the $5000 to $10,000 the Herald stated on Saturday.
While the sums in question are well under the $500,000 threshold deemed worthy of SFO attention, complaints likely to be of major public interest or concern may also be a factor in a referral to the SFO.
Donna Awatere-Huata was interviewed last week in the presence of her lawyer, Paul Davidson, QC.
But Mr Prebble said he was not worried about his MP, who would be back at work this week as usual.
"I'm not greatly concerned. What I am concerned about is the timing," he said.
"This is a matter Donna thought had been resolved last July.
"[She] hadn't been given any indication from Parliamentary Service that they hadn't accepted her explanation and it goes back to 1999."
He had heard last Tuesday that Prime Minister Helen Clark had foreshadowed the resignations from their portfolios of ministers Marian Hobbs and Phillida Bunkle on Friday - but that it would be overshadowed by the troubles of an Act MP.
Marian Hobbs and Phillida Bunkle resigned after a Crown Law Office opinion raised questions about the legitimacy of their allowances.
They had been enrolled as residents of Wellington Central last election but each had been receiving an accommodation allowance for out-of-town MPs.
The Parliamentary Service general manager, John O'Sullivan, has refused comment on the matter.
Its affairs do not fall under the Official Information Act.
Prebble unfazed by MP's run-in
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