How to lose 500 calories in 30 minutes, Lottery Corp style!

What on earth were you thinking, Lisa Bell-Murray?

All the evidence points to you being a darn nice lady.

And a smart one too!

You're very, very busy as a vice president at Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, but you still find time to be active in our community, serving as vice chair of Algoma University's board of governors.

You gave generously of your time last year to serve as co-chair of an Ontario Public Service campaign to raise contributions from OLG employees for health charities.

You've sure done all right for yourself, Lisa - as OLG's vice president controller, you pocketed $192,064 last year in salary and taxable benefits.

No question, you've got a lot to be proud of!

So today, the question people all around the Sault are asking is, why on earth would you make Ontario taxpayers pay for your $250 membership in Curves, the women's weight-management club where patrons burn off up to 500 calories in 30-minute exercise sessions?

SooToday.com has asked Bell-Murray to tell her side of the story that's now making news across the province.

Unless she decides to talk, we'll probably never know what she was thinking.

With a bachelor of commerce degree from Laurentian University, a certified management accountant designation and more than two decades of senior-level accounting experience, there can be no question that Bell-Murray knew what's appropriate, and inappropriate, on a corporate expense requisition.

But the spending habits of Bell-Murray and other senior OLG executives have come under the microscope in a fiasco that yesterday brought down OLG's entire top leadership.

Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan announced that he was firing CEO Kelly McDougald "with cause" and that he had accepted the resignations of the full OLG board.

In an attempt to defuse the Ontario government's latest spending scandal, Duncan released five fat binders of OLG expense records, from which reporters are now busily mining a mother lode of scandal.

Bell-Murray's Curves membership is among the cases cited in news stories being read today across the province.

Meanwhile, the expense account disclosures also reveal that George Sweny, senior vice president lottery, paid $1,165 out of the public purse for a very-nice "business meeting" at the Voyageurs' Lodge and Cookhouse on the shore of lovely Batchawana Bay, including $241 for beer.

Sweny also claimed a $3,268 "team-building" bash at Oakville's Paradiso Restaurant.

In his favour, it must be noted that Sweny is a superb details guy - he made $362,201 in salary and taxable benefits last year but didn't forget to bill taxpayers for a 75-cent parking receipt. OLG key account manager Randy Hubbard (2008 salary $103,376) was just as thorough, claiming a $7.70 refill for his pen and $1.12 for a cloth grocery bag.

Other OLG executives have submitted creative expense claims for dry cleaning, spa services and a nanny.

Today, Premier Dalton McGuinty cut short his summer vacation to announce new rules under which employee expenses at Ontario's largest agencies, boards and commissions will be reviewed by the province's integrity commissioner.

Anyone caught padding expense accounts with personal items or alcohol for staff functions will be forced to pay the money back.

OLG has a duty to protect the interest of taxpayers, the premier said. "Just because you operate at arm's length from our government doesn't give you the right to straight-arm taxpayers. You have a responsibility to be held accountable."