Court told of three-hour taxpayer-funded lunches in Radwanski trial

The lunches were so long that office staff often had to work overtime to finish the day's work once Radwanski returned to the office, former secretary Nicole Menard testified Tuesday.

Menard, who was the administrative assistant for communications director Donna Lavallieres, said the business lunches sometimes went for "two, two and a half, three hours."

"The effect was they would come back late and we would work later to finish what we were doing," she said in response to questions from Crown attorney Robert Wadden.

Another former assistant in the office said Radwanski's travel and hospitality expenses were so disorganized, he brought meal and travel receipts to her in grocery bags for sorting.

Manon Mutchmore, who joined Radwanski's office after a stint in then prime minister Jean Chretien's office, described Radwanski's expense records as a "mess."

She testified she was so taken aback by the confusion she persuaded Radwanski to share a personal bank account with her to ensure his reimbursements for expenses went toward paying off bills.

Even so, she said, Radwanski could never seem to catch up to his unpaid bills.

Muchmore confirmed accounts from other former employees, who described how Radwanski would bring his travel and expense receipts to him in brown paper bags.

"It was in a big grocery bag," she said. "I told him: 'You can't do this, you want me there, you can't do this'."

Radwanski and his former chief of staff, Arthur Lamarche, face fraud and breach of trust charges over the former privacy commissioner's extravagant hospitality spending and two $15,000 travel advances he received to apparently pay off his American Express government travel card.

Radwanski received one of the advances in May 2002, but did not reimburse it until March 31, 2003, the last day for repayment before the debt would appear on the government's public accounts as an outstanding advance.

Late the next month in the new fiscal year, Radwanski took out another $15,000 travel advance, again for the purpose of paying down his Amex bill rather than travel.

Mutchmore said she had heard indirectly before the second advance that Radwanski and Lamarche intended to take it, despite internal questions that had been raised in the finance branch of the office over the first advance.

"It was hush, hush, not something to talk about," she testified.

Wadden has linked the travel advances and a $16,000 cash payment in lieu of vacation to $50,000 in the form of a personal loan and mortgage that Lamarche advanced Radwanski.

Wadden is expected to wrap up the Crown's case Wednesday with expert evidence from a forensic accountant .