An independent review has found no evidence that staff in the office of Parliament's speaker, Speaker Trevor Mallard, or Parliamentary Service finance and corporate staff released details of National Party leader Simon Bridge's expenses report to any unauthorised parties.
Parliamentary Services says it was asked to conduct a review relating to its finance and corporate staff who were involved with the preparation of the quarterly expenses, or had access to the file or received it, to ascertain if any of them released the expense information without authority.
Parliamentary services says was also asked that the review extend to the Office of the Speaker's staff and the Speaker's own records to determine whether that office had released the expense document without authority.
Parliamentary services engaged KPMG to undertake the review and it included forensic examination of emails and relevant databases.
The review found there was no evidence the expense document was sent to any unauthorised parties via email and that neither the Speaker's office nor the Speaker received the expense document electronically.
Scanning, printing and photocopying logs confirmed there was no evidence of the expense document being printed prior to its unauthorised release.
And web access logs indicated there was no evidence the document was send via webmail or another online service.
This review did not include those Parliamentary Service staff employed in National MPs offices, the National Leader's staff, the Deputy Speaker or her staff.
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