Expenses claimed by Tynwald members on Commonwealth Parliamentary Association trips abroad have come under the spotlight thanks to a Freedom of Information request.

Government minister - and now Speaker - Juan Watterson MHK, Tony Wild MLC and Clerk of Tynwald Roger Phillips racked up an expenses claim totalling £16,770 between them on a four-day visit to a CPA regional conference in the Falkland Islands in February 2013.

Mr Phillips’ wife also attended but no expenses were claimed on her behalf and all costs she incurred were refunded. The group travelled via Paris and Santiago, Chile.

The FoI request follows an earlier one which asked for details of all off-island trips made by politicians and officers in the life of the last parliament.

The costs of the Falklands trip was by far the largest, and expenses for other than travel and accommodations costs at £1,156 were again the largest for any off-island visit.

The bulk of the party’s claim was the £14,356 spent on flights as the party had to change their tickets due to the threat of industrial action by air traffic control in Spain.

The FoI response also includes the receipts submitted in support of the expenses claims for meals and sundries.

Mr Watterson claimed £135.09 and £92.47 for meals in Santiago, Chile, on February 8.

The receipts show that over two visits to the Backstage Experience, one in the afternoon and one in the evening, Mr Watterson purchased for the party of four seven pisco sours, a classic South American alcoholic cocktail, five Guayacan Golden beers, three Schop Grassau lagers and a bottle of Marques de Casa Concha Carmene wine.

Another receipt shows Mr Watterson claimed £26.01 for purchases at the FIC Foodhall in Stanley, the Falklands capital, on February 11 which included paracetamol, after-sun, a roll-on deodorant, bottled water, four AA batteries and some ultra soft tissues.

Mr Watterson told the Manx Independent: ’We do not approve our own expenses, they are approved by the finance officer who will make sure that all is above board.

’Not only should expenses be reasonable, but should be wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred in the line of work.

Explaining the purchase of after-sun, he said: ’We discovered rather too late that there is no ozone layer over the Falklands so even on an overcast day we all ended up getting burned to a crisp whilst outside. Consider then it was between four (or more of us) I think it passes the test.’

Mr Watterson said the group travelled economy class both ways and it was a 55-hour trip door-to door.

Explaining why he needed to buy the paracetamol, he said: ’When I arrived in the Falklands, I had something in my eye which required hospital treatment - anesthetising the eye and lots of prodding around with a cue tip (sic).’

He added: ’In terms of meals and drinks, I think there is a learning point here. It has been quite common for one person to claim on behalf of a group rather than splitting a bill for the purposes of an expense claim.

’It’s not unreasonable to have a drink with your meal, and any spending would have been within the meal allowance. Certainly when you add it up, divide the alcohol spend by four and consider it over a week, I’d be surprised if it was in any way unreasonable.’

Mr Watterson said the relationship with the Falkland Islands - population 3,398, which is fewer than Port Erin, which has 3,530 citizens - had blossomed in light of contacts made during the 2013 conference.

He said he and Mr Wild had laid a wreath at the war memorial to commemorate those who gave their lives in the 1982 conflict and the group took time to visit other war memorials around the Falklands.

’It is always hard to know what the benefits of a conference will be before you go. I’d like to think that Manx attendance was very worthwhile and has sprouted other benefits,’ he said.

Clerk of Tynwald Mr Phillips said: ’You have to decide are we a village or a country? If we are a country you’ve got to have an external presences.’

He explained that some of the costs of accommodation were paid by the Falklands - but the rest was ultimately paid for by the Manx taxpayer.

He said the cost of travel and costs of accommodation on such visits are invariably paid in person and claimed back on expenses, or paid directly by the Clerk of Tynwald’s office.

In this particular case there was a threat of strike action by air traffic control in Spain.

’It was a last minute emergency to change our tickets to ensure we returned on time for the February Budget sitting. That’s why it cost so much. It was a one-off,’ he said.

Mr Phillips said: ’What you claim for has to be reasonable. There are guidelines. The office checks the claims and signs them off. We do ask for explanations about particular claims.’

He said the trip was to the British Islands and Mediterranean regional conference.

’It was a very good visit. We do learn a lot from other jurisdictions and they learn from us,’ he said.

FOOTNOTE:

This story first appeared in the Manx Independent on Thursday.

It was promoted on Isle of Man Newspapers' Facebook site.

Commenting there, the Speaker of the House of Keys, Juan Watterson, wrote this:

"IOM Newspapers on the ball as ever- it was 4 1/2 years ago. Happy for the facts to be out, it's the snide innuendo by them that annoys."

Our response to that:

What Juan Watterson doesn't bother to mention in his post on our Facebook site is that the information has only just been released after a new Freedom of Information request. So that information is only now in the public domain. The story makes all that perfectly clear.

We give Mr Watterson a lot of space in the story to put forward his view and justify the expenses claims.

We reject any allegation of innuendo.

It's a simple report of the facts. And, since Mr Watterson is now so happy to have information in the public domain about how much the taxpayer forked out for his alcohol, paracetamol, batteries etc (even though he didn't release this information at the time 4.5 years ago) we look forward to him releasing all further expenses claimed before anyone has to place an FoI request (and therefore cost the public purse to do so) to find out.