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		</div><p><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/mps-claimed-expenses-without-proof.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full" title="MPs were allowed to claim millions of pounds in expenses last year without providing proof of entitlement" src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/min-mps-claimed-expenses-without-proof.jpg" alt="MPs were allowed to claim millions of pounds in expenses last year without providing proof of entitlement"/></a></p>
<p>MPs were allowed to claim millions of pounds in expenses last year without providing proof of entitlement, it has been disclosed.</p>
<p>On another hugely embarrassing day for the House of Commons, the Auditor General refused to sign off its accounts in full because of concerns about the &#8220;regularity&#8221; of payments to MPs.</p>
<p>Amyas Morse, the head of the National Audit Office, said he could not confirm the validity of £13.9 million of claims because he was unable to inspect supporting documentation.</p>
<p>The cash was claimed for and paid out mainly in the period between the eruption of the expenses scandal in May 2009 and this year&#8217;s general election.</p>
<p>The Commons Members&#8217; Estimate Committee, which oversees House finances, admitted that &#8220;checks and balances were not adequate&#8221;. Campaigners said the disclosures were further proof that MPs remained out of touch with the electorate.</p>
<p>The Commons is now trying to claw back more than £33,000 from a number of unidentified MPs who were either paid expenses by mistake or could provide no evidence at all that the transactions were even made.</p>
<p>But the sums being chased are a fraction of the amount questioned by Mr Morse and about half may have to be written off anyway because the MPs have since quit parliament.</p>
<p>The Auditor General&#8217;s initial discoveries of missing documentation prompted an 11-month &#8220;remedial&#8221; project by the House to try to retrospectively obtain evidence for claims.</p>
<p>But £830,000 remained entirely unsupported at the end of that process in October. Of that, £460,000 related to MPs&#8217; staffing budgets and £370,000 to second homes and offices.</p>
<p>Support could not be provided for another £1.8 million of claims because the MPs concerned were under investigation by the police.</p>
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