'Through the looking glass' .... Liberal Senator Pana Merchant elected to sit on financial transparency board
OTTAWA — A Liberal senator whose name has been attached to an offshore tax haven has been elected to sit on an international board that advocates for greater transparency among the world’s financial institutions.
Ethics filings for Sen. Pana Merchant show she was elected to the board of directors of the Parliamentary Network of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in late May.
According to the group’s website, the organization gives politicians from more than 140 countries a platform to “advocate for increased accountability and transparency in international financial institutions and multilateral development financing.” Much of the group’s work, according to its website, focuses on oversight of foreign aid in developing countries.
The group held its annual meeting in Azerbaijan May 23-24. Merchant’s filing to the ethics officer is dated May 28.
Merchant did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday. The Liberal senator from Saskatchewan has kept a low-profile after her name appeared in a news report about offshore tax havens.
A report in April by the CBC said it had documents suggesting Pana Merchant was a beneficiary of a $1.7 million offshore trust set up by her husband, Tony Merchant, a noted lawyer. The CBC obtained the records, which Postmedia News has not seen, through an international consortium of investigative journalists.
Regina Leader-Post
**Through the looking glass**
Wonders never cease.
Posted by
Saskboy |
1:23 am, July 12, 2013