CLARINGTON -- The accountant who conducted the audit into former Clarington Mayor John Mutton's expenses has been charged by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario.

The charges faced by Chartered Accountant James Horn related directly to the audit of Mr. Mutton's campaign expenses, conducted to look into allegations the ex-mayor had over-spent.

The charges were laid by the Institute's Professional Conduct committee, and will be subject to a Nov. 19 hearing by the Institute's Discipline Committee.

According to a communique on Institute letterhead, Mr. Horn is charged with failure to "perform his professional services with due care" under the Institute's Rules of Professional Conduct.

Specifically, the charges allege the auditor contravened the rules in that:

(a) he failed to conduct appropriate audit procedures to enable him to determine the existence of apparent contraventions of the (Municipal Elections) Act;

(b) he failed to perform an adequate or appropriate audit of campaign contributions;

(c) he failed to perform an adequate or appropriate audit of expenses related to campaign banners and to identify related apparent contraventions of the Act in his compliance audit report; and,

(d) he failed to appropriately disclose a scope limitation related to the audit of advertising expenses in his compliance audit report.

Mr. Horn could not be reached for comment and the allegations have not been proven.

Charges are laid by the Professional Conduct Committee if an investigation turns up any "substantial fact," said Perry Jensen, the Institute's director of media relations.

The discipline committee then hears the case, which is done in a manner "very similar to the judicial process," Mr. Jensen said.

Mr. Horn will be allowed to enter a plea, and if necessary, witnesses can be called by both sides. If found guilty, punishments range from a reprimand to losing professional accreditation, Mr. Jensen said.

Who complained to the Institute is not public information. However, at a Clarington council meeting last November, Newcastle resident and chartered accountant Mark Hendrikx, who acted as campaign accountant to sitting Mayor Jim Abernethy during the hotly contested 2006 municipal election, said he had found a number of flaws with Mr. Horn's audit.

"I have 20 years of experience in the (accounting) field," Mr. Hendrikx said last year. "I have never seen an audit report with one-tenth of these concerns, issued in the wrong format, no contact with the complainant, explanations not in accordance with case law, explaining away identified risk areas with 'maybe' type explanations, and a final report completely at odds with the requirements of the CA profession."

Mr. Hendrikx could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

The Newcastle accountant also filed charges with the Ontario Court of Justice, alleging more than 100 breaches he believed were committed by the Municipality during the election.

Those charges -- which were eventually tossed out of court with the Crown citing no reasonable prospect of conviction -- refer to columns which ran in Municipally-purchased advertising space in local newspapers, including this one. Mr. Hendrikx alleged having those columns run through the election period constituted a Municipal donation to the former mayor's campaign. He also accused the Municipality of a number of other breaches, including allowing Mr. Mutton to use space not yet certified for occupancy as his campaign office and allowing him to put up signs early.

In his audit report, Mr. Horn said the newspaper articles and similar television commercials which aired in the weeks leading up to the November 2006 election are "certainly a fine line for an incumbent mayor during an election campaign.

"The bottom line is that an incumbent mayor, while running for re-election, is still an elected official that needs to continue to fill that role and it's encompassing day-to-day duties," said the report.

Ex-mayor Mutton learned of the charges Wednesday. Now working in the private sector, Mr. Mutton said he might feel compelled to return to public life over this.

"This is the reason why I can no longer resist the call and I'm giving serious consideration" to running for mayor again, he said.

He said he'll also call on the Municipality to have another look at an audit of current Mayor Jim Abernethy's expenses. Audits of both the current and former mayors were requested by residents after the Nov. 2006 election.

"This is not the thin edge of the wedge," said ex-mayor Mutton. "This is going to rip the door wide open for reviewing the current mayor's audit."