A provincial-government watchdog group Integrity has demonstrated that the de facto CEO of the B.C. legislature has a history of charging significant travel expenses to taxpayers.

Integrity B.C. compiled data showing that Craig James filed $615,240 in these billings since 2005.

That works out to $43,945.71 per year, on average.

Some of these expenses were submitted when he was acting chief electoral officer in 2010 and 2011. On September 1, 2011, he became clerk of the legislature.

James and the sergeant-at-arms, Gary Lenz, were placed on paid administrative leave on November 20 after a special prosecutor was appointed to review a criminal probe by the RCMP.

Lenz billed $156,931 in expenses since 2009. That works out to an average of $15,693.10 per year.

The acting clerk, Kate Ryan-Lloyd, billed $184,734 in expenses since 2005, working out to an average of $13,192 per year. 

Ryan-Lloyd was deputy clerk before being named acting clerk after James and Lenz were suspended.

https://twitter.com/INTEGRITYBC/status/1089382455922937856

The travel expenses of James and Lenz came under criticism in a recently released 76-page report by Speaker Darryl Plecas.

James and Lenz have insisted that they've done nothing wrong.

They've also stated that they were never given an opportunity to respond to Plecas's allegations before they were published.