Expenses body to cost six times more than MPs' payback
Sir Ian Kennedy will be paid a salary of £100,000
The Parliamentary body set up to police expenses will cost about six times the amount MPs have been ordered to repay, the BBC has learned.
Figures show the annual cost of running the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority will be £6.5m.
Last week, MPs were told to pay back £1.12m of their second home expenses after an audit of their claims dating back to 2004 by Sir Thomas Legg.
Meanwhile, three MPs and a Tory peer are facing charges over their expenses.
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) has replaced the Commons Fees Office, and most of its £6.5m budget is expected to go on recruiting about 80 staff. Its chairman Sir Ian Kennedy will be paid a salary of £100,000.
This will come on top of the £1.1m cost of Sir Thomas Legg's audit and the inquiry by the standards watchdog Sir Christopher Kelly which cost £400,000.
"That inquiry is now being re-examined by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority prior to implementing a new expenses regime," he added.
So to sum up, MP's have been told to pay back £1.12 million, but the costs incurred in arriving at this, and setting up the new Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority are £8.1 million. A loss of around £6.9 million when we are already burdened with enormous debts. What a crazy world we live in!
I thought the whole point of this exercise was to save us money!
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