DENVER -- Congress is well known for holding federal agencies, private companies and athletes accountable, but a CALL7 investigation found some Colorado lawmakers do not want to be accountable for how they spent taxpayers’ money.

CALL7 investigators reviewed the congressional statements of expenses for the entire Colorado delegation and asked each congressman and congresswoman to provide receipts that detailed what the taxpayer money was used to buy.

“Members of Congress are fond of waving a sanctimonious finger at private industry for not revealing its own finances, but they won't lift a finger to reveal their own finances,” said Peter Sepp, communications director for the non-partisan Washington, D.C. based National Taxpayers Union. “It's no surprise that the details are lacking in these expenditure reports. They have always been regarded as something of a nuisance."

Sepp is talking about the State of Disbursements of the House and the Report of the Secretary of the Senate that provide meager details in fine print of the approximately $1.3 million each House representative receive and more than $2 million each senator gets to run his or her offices.

The books, released each quarter, provide a date, the name of the person or company paid and an amount. There is also a description for the payment, but the reason is often so vague as to be of little or no help in determining whether the expenditure is an appropriate use of tax money. The House plans to post the expenses online by the end of November, but detailed receipts will not be available.

Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet, both D-Colo., as well as U.S. Reps. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., and Mike Coffman, R-Colo., provided all of the documentation 7News requested.

U.S. Reps. Diana DeGette and John Salazar, both D-Colo., said the information is turned over to the House finance office and their offices did not keep copies. U.S. Reps. Jared Polis, D-Colo., and Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., refused to provide receipts, saying that they have a policy not to provide the information. U.S. Rep. Betsy Markey’s staff just stopped returning calls and e-mails.

The information in the books raises questions about how tax money is spent. For example, Salazar’s disbursements in 2008 showed his office leased three Ford Explorers at nearly $500 a month each and at the same time Salazar received reimbursement for more than $1,400 in personal automobile mileage.

DeGette’s disbursements show $870 paid to Dvorak expeditions listed as a business meeting and car rental, but she told 7News that the expenses paid for a trip through a national forest so she could research a wilderness protection bill. She declined to provide the receipts.

Most of the lawmakers had thousands of dollars of something just called “travel subsistence” with no further explanation.

Salazar would not sit for an interview so asked him questions outside a Democratic function. Salazar said he never travels first class and eats at fast food restaurants while traveling for work. Salazar also said he has a large district and needs the vehicles and mileage to visit far flung areas he represents.

“When I'm traveling out in the district I eat at McDonalds, you know, to try to save the taxpayers' money,” Salazar said.

But he also said he didn’t need to answer 7News questions because KMGH stories are not seen by his constituents.

“I don't represent Denver, OK,” Salazar said.

“But you represent Colorado. You represent taxpayers of this country,” said CALL7 Investigator Tony Kovaleski.

Lamborn also declined to provide detailed receipts on his spending so we caught up with him at a town hall meeting.

“We asked to do an interview with you about the $1.3 million you spend of taxpayers money and you said ‘no.’ Why not be accountable?” Kovaleski asked Lamborn.

Lamborn walked away, saying we should put our questions in writing. 7News, like many news organization, has a policy not to provide written questions before interviews.

DeGette and Polis agreed to do an interview despite not providing documentation of their expenses.

Both candidates said their offices send the bills to the House finance office, which reviews the expenditures.

“Everybody’s office has kind of a different internal policy about what they do, and I just explained what my policy is to you,” DeGette said.

U.S. Rep. Betsy Markey, D-Colo., took a different tact. Her staff just stopped returning calls and e-mails. She refused to stop and talk when we met her outside a Democratic fundraiser.

“Tony Kovaleski from Channel 7. Do you have a minute?” Kovaleski asked.

“No, actually, I don’t,” Markey responded, walking past 7News cameras.

Perlmutter provided all the documents 7News requested.

"We don't have anything to hide," he said.