TORONTO - Ontario's Opposition took aim at alleged expense account abuses by the chair of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board on Thursday, calling it another symptom of the "rot" that has infested the Liberal government in its second term.

WSIB chair Steve Mahoney, a former Liberal cabinet minister, is paid $550 a day for the part-time job, and billed taxpayers $141,000 last year, "more per diems than there are working days in the year," complained the Progressive Conservatives.

"Despite all that public money in his pocket, Mr. Mahoney (also) expensed thousands of dollars for limos until they finally gave him a car (and) meals where he had no meetings," Opposition critic Christine Elliott said in the legislature.

"He travelled so much he got lost in Myrtle Beach, where he billed four days for one day of meetings and then expensed a GPS system."

Mahoney is collecting pensions from his time as an MPP and MP, and is now living large on more money from taxpayers, complained the opposition parties.

"Injured workers are living in poverty, living on macaroni and cheese, while Mr. Mahoney is living the high life," said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

"It's outrageous and unacceptable and it shows once again that this government is very happy to give plum positions with untold expense accounts to their Liberal friends."

Labour Minister Peter Fonseca told the legislature that Mahoney's expenses were all allowed within the rules that existed at the time. Those rules have since been changed to demand more accountability from everyone being paid by Ontario taxpayers, he noted.

Outside the house, Fonseca said Mahoney had paid back some of the expenses that were "questioned," but he couldn't say how much money was involved, which expenses had been deemed unacceptable or who had made those decisions.

"The chair was within that (expense) policy (but) that policy has changed," Fonseca said.

"Any expenses that were in question the chair has paid back, even expenses that were not in question by the policy, the chair has paid back."

An aide to Fonseca said later that Mahoney had paid back $14,579 in previously approved expenses over two years, but like the minister, could not provide specifics.

The reimbursements did not impress the opposition parties.

"When did he pay them back? We don't know that, and even if he did, it means that there wasn't proper accountability for those expenses in the first place," said Elliott.

"It's symptomatic of what's going on with this government, of the rot that's invading the system. They just don't care about the use of taxpayers' money."

The Conservatives said the WSIB has not been well served by Mahoney's leadership, noting the agency's unfunded liabilities ballooned to $11.4 billion from $3.6 billion in 2006, and small businesses complain they're forced to pay premiums for workers who couldn't qualify for benefits.

"The McGuinty Liberals' new plan to stop the bleeding at the WSIB is for premium hikes and making small businesses pay for secretaries and office staff who will never collect benefits," Conservative Randy Hillier told the legislature.

"It's a Ponzi scheme, only the people being added to the pyramid go in knowing that they are being cheated."

Fonseca defended the huge unfunded liabilities, saying all large, institutional investors like the WSIB suffered major losses during the global economic crisis.

Mahoney's office did not immediately return calls seeking comment on the allegations raised in the legislature Thursday.