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The chairman of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority has defended his organisation at a fractious committee hearing this afternoon.
Sir Ian Kennedy appeared before the Speaker's committee on Ipsa – he faced a barrage of criticism from MPs.
Charles Walker (Con, Broxbourne) demanded to know why Ipsa had set up an expensive online expenses system that does not work properly.
It spent £6.5m on it, yet could easily have used an outsourced system.
He complained that the authority got every MP's salary wrong, and hundreds of colleagues are owed thousands of pounds.
MPs are funding Ipsa by taking out personal loans to cover expenses, he said.
Kennedy replied that Ipsa has been in operation for eight weeks, in which time it has processed 2,300 claims.
A "different computational method" between Ipsa and the Commons authorities was the reason for the mistake with salaries, he said.
Andrew McDonald, Ipsa's chief executive, claimed that outsourcing the expenses system would not have been secure or cost-effective.
Walker countered that Ipsa employs 77 staff to carry out payroll and expenses functions.
McDonald said in fact Ipsa also sets rules and monitors compliance.
Laura Sandys (Con, South Thanet) asked how the committee was expected to benchmark costs and assess value for money without more information from Ipsa.
Speaker John Bercow, who was in the chair, said many MPs would like Ipsa to demonstrate it has given consideration to the workload of members when assessing staffing costs.
Kennedy said it worked on the assumption that each MP has 3.5 members of staff, but many not have taken into account that long-serving staff will be paid more.
He then launched a defence of Ipsa as a "non-partisan, external regulator" defending the public purse.
Many of the 15 or so MPs in the audience jeered.
Kennedy said he wanted to create a dialogue with MPs about what a modern legislator needs from the public funds.
Bob Russell (Con, Colchester) asked Kennedy if he has ever been to an MP's constituency office – he replied he has not.
Russell said Ipsa is the most inefficient organisation he has come across, and it is not complying with the law as it is not cost-effective.
He said trying to contact Ipsa and navigate its online expenses system wastes about five hours of MPs' staff time per week – the equivalent of 93 people working full time just trying to deal with Ipsa.
Kennedy claimed that he is pleased by reports that "many MPs" are thanking Ipsa staff for their hard work.
This led Nick Brown, shadow chief whip, to say he has been besieged by complaints from angry members – he told Kennedy to send any satisfied Labour MPs his way, as he has yet to meet any.
Brown said Ipsa's online system is "clunky, difficult to use and time-consuming".
He complained that MPs were being asked to produce receipts for costs such as utility bills or council tax, where no receipt is normally issued.
Kennedy said Ipsa needs not just a utility bill but evidence that it has been paid.
Brown said: "I think that is taking things too far".
McDonald replied that Ipsa will provide one-to-one tuition to MPs. Brown said that Kennedy clearly has no understanding of MPs concerns.
Russell accused Ipsa of not bothering to find out about MPs' working lives.
Mr Speaker observed that the overwhelming number of MPs support an independent system of expenses and it is reasonable of the committee to ask probing questions.
Russell asked why Ipsa is recruiting three communications staff, one of them on a £85,000 salary.
Kennedy said his organisation has a number of audiences, including the public and the media. Ipsa has not communicated as well as it should, he told the committee.
Sir George Young, leader of the House of Commons, said the committee only meets once a year and suggested a more regular dialogue between MPs and Ipsa.
Kennedy agreed that would be "a good idea".
Around 15 MPs attended the committee hearing and sat in the public seats – many were angry at the testimony given and were quite vocal about their unhappiness with Ipsa's conduct.
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