The new MPs expenses watchdog has defended its £6.6 million set-up costs and insisted the annual bill to taxpayers would be lower in future.
A new London headquarters and IT equipment were included in the initial budget, a spokesman for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) said.
Next year's budget is yet to be finalised as the details of IPSA's operations remain under consideration.
But officials said they believed it would show a reduction on the staff costs of the House of Commons Fees Office, which it is replacing.
"The estimated cost of setting up IPSA in 2009/10 is £6.6 million. This figure was published to Parliament last year and reflects one-off costs of establishing a new, independent public body of this sort, such as the acquisition of accommodation and IT systems," a spokesman said.
"Early estimates suggest that in direct staff costs, the team working directly on the expenses system within IPSA will cost less than the existing House of Commons arrangements."
Separately, one of the MPs facing criminal charges over their expenses has suggested he was the victim of "outlandish" media coverage.
David Chaytor insisted he had received no money to which he was not entitled, despite being prosecuted on three counts of false accounting. He is alleged to have dishonestly obtained more than £20,000 on his Commons expenses.
Mr Chaytor described the past nine months as "a shattering experience" and claimed that his position had been misrepresented by the media.
In an interview with his local newspaper, the Bury Times, Mr Chaytor said: "After all these months of selective reporting and outlandish claims, I now look forward to explaining the details of my case to the authorities."
