Canada's chief electoral officer has no discretion to audit or investigate election expense claims by party candidates but must simply reimburse them if the paperwork appears in order, a lawyer representing two Conservative agents argued Monday in Federal Court in Ottawa.

It was a surprisingly simple, nuance-free submission considering the lawsuit — initiated by the Tories in relation to advertising expenses in the 2006 federal campaign — has taken more than 27 months, countless court manoeuvres and hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to get before a judge.

Lawyer Michel Decary, representing two Conservative agents among 67 who participated in the so-called "in-and-out" scheme to pay for advertising, said the role of chief electoral officer Marc Mayrand is purely "mechanical" when it comes to reimbursing expenses.

"He has no investigative powers," Decary told a clearly skeptical Justice Luc Martineau. "The role of the chief electoral officer is not to get down in the ring and become the prosecutor."

Since the candidates provided invoices for the ad purchases, and since the ads did in fact run, Elections Canada had no option but to reimburse them, Decary stated.

The case involves $1.2 million in Conservative advertising that was billed to local candidates during the last weeks of the 2006 election campaign.

In a series of transactions controlled by party headquarters, thousands of dollars were transferred to local campaigns, which immediately sent the money back as payment for national TV and radio ads that played in their region.

Had the national ads been billed to the party, the Conservatives would have exceeded their election spending limit by more than a million dollars.

Decary will continue presenting his case Tuesday, after which Elections Canada lawyer Barbara McIsaac will offer her rebuttal.