Murray begins testimony in Walsh trial

A key figure in Newfoundland and Labrador's governmentalspending scandal began testifying Tuesday at the trial of former Liberal cabinet minister Jim Walsh.

Walsh one of four former politicians charged in2005over questionable spending by members of all three political parties involving millions in misused public dollars is charged with fraud over $5,000, breach of trust and fraud on the government, a charge formerly known as influence peddling.

During his testimony Tuesday, former financial director Bill Murray corroborated key evidence given by John Noel the former clerk of the house when he testified last week.

Murray's testimony was focused on the paper trail that is the key to the case against Jim Walsh.While on the stand, Murray went through two years of Walsh's expense claims and identified his own handwriting on all butone of them.

Murray filled out 47 expense claims on Walsh's behalf running from April 2002 to November 2003. The claims add up to almost $200,000.

The testimony backs up what the former clerk of the house John Noel said in court last week when he correctly identified Murray's handwriting on the claim forms.

However, Tuesday's testimony contradicts Walsh's comments to police that he and Murray weren't close, and that Murray wasn't someone he would rely on.

Murray said he was doing practically all of the financial paperwork for Walsh's constituency allowance for two years, and that Walsh was burning through his annual budget in just months and still filing claims.

Murray alsotestified Tuesday morning that he opposed a decision by member's of the Internal Economy Commission a bipartisan committee that oversees house finances to bar Elizabeth Marshall, the auditor general,from checking the legislature's books in 2000.

Murray said he made a verbal complaint at the clerk's office saying he didn't think barring Marshall was proper.

Murray, who approved MHA expense claims and managed their budgets, was suspended from his job in June 2006, when Marshall's successor, Auditor General John Noseworthy, released the first of a series of explosive reports on spending at the legislature. Histrial on seven charges connected to the scandalis expected to begin in September.

Walsh has maintained that mistakes, not crimes, lie behind overpayments he received in his tax-free constituency

The former tourism minister sat in the house of assembly from 1989 until his defeat in 2003.