Â鶹´«Ã½ has learned that new allegations are about to be made in the RCMP pension and insurance scandal.
Sources tell Â鶹´«Ã½ that the problems with the insurance plan go back more than 12 years and that the misspending was higher by several million dollars.
The House of Commons public accounts committee will be told that the misuse began in 1995 -- a full six years earlier than the period covered by the Auditor General's report from last fall.
"It surprises me of course that the situation is widening out," said committee member John Williams, an Alberta Conservative MP.
"(It's) getting deeper and wider and more people are becoming involved and that's, for the Canadian public's point of view, the last thing they want to hear."
Back in 1995, the RCMP -- along with every other part of the federal government -- was facing deep budget cuts and wage freezes as the federal Liberals battled the deficit.
CTV's Graham Richardson said the new allegations suggest that to deal with these pressures, the RCMP's human resources branch may have improperly diverted some of the money from the members' insurance fund to shore up other budgets.
Just over $4 million in misspent money has already been paid back, but that only covers a two-year period, he said.
Richardson added: "There is no person living high on the hog on RCMP money. The question though for members, is if this was allowed to go on at headquarters, why was it allowed to go on for so long, because in other parts of the country, this wouldn't have been tolerated at some of the smaller detachments."
Two former Liberal cabinet ministers, Anne McLellan and Reg Alcock, will testify before the committee on Monday about what was going on with the RCMP pension fund, along with more senior RCMP officers, he said.
George responds
Suspended RCMP deputy commissioner Barbara George says she will continue to present the facts and defend her actions "until the end of time," if necessary, to clear her name of the allegations against her.
George appeared on CTV's Question Period on Sunday, her first interview since she appeared before the parliamentary public accounts committee on Wednesday.
During the explosive committee hearing, RCMP Staff Sgt. Mike Frizzell, who was a key investigator on the Ottawa police probe into the misuse of RCMP pension and insurance funds, accused George of improperly withdrawing nearly $600,000 from the insurance account.
Frizzell, who was pulled off the case, has also said he felt he was removed because he sought explanation from George and former director general of human resources Rosalie Burton about the missing funds.
George, the only RCMP member to face disciplinary action so far, told Question Period she had nothing to do with his removal from the case -- and two Ottawa police officers have testified to that effect.
"I feel that ultimately the truth will come out and the facts will be put forward. The public will see this," she said.
George said the $600,000 was taken from the insurance fund and transferred to the pension fund as part of efforts to correct earlier errors made in the way the funds were handled.
She said an improper agreement was signed in 2003 between her predecessor in charge of human resources, and the chair of the insurance fund to use some of the pension funds to pay for the administration of the insurance fund. In 2005, when the error was discovered, she tried to correct it.
"It was felt that monies that had been improperly utilized one way or another from the pension fund needed to be returned to the pension fund. In fact, that was the catalyst that started all of this," she said.
"So, as time went on, I believe the corporate side of the house took great care to look at the expenditures that were tallied up against the pension fund and they returned, I think, approximately $3.4 million back into the pension fund."
George, a 29-year veteran of the RCMP, said she doesn't know why she seems to have been targeted as a scapegoat, but her suspension last month was completely unexpected. However, she said she has faith the situation will eventually be resolved.
George said she has been asked back to the committee for a third appearance, and intends to keep going back until her reputation is restored.
"I will go back to the committee until the end of time, if I have to. The committee has asked me back again for a third time. I will continue to put forth the facts and the truth."
She would not speculate on whether the federal government should call a public inquiry into the allegations, saying that decision is not up to her.
With a report from CTV's Graham Richardson
