DEPARTMENTAL SPENDING

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21315, 7 November 1934, Page 12

DEPARTMENTAL SPENDING

i MR E. J. HOWARD ATTACKS | GOVERNMENT | AUDITOR-GENERAL'S POSITION | [From Our Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, November 6. Claiming that looseness in the : finances of the Native Department, : referred to in the report of the ! Native Affairs Commission, woukl 1 probably be found in other depart- | ments of State and notably in the i administration of the Unemploy- | ment Fund, Mr E. J. Howard (Lab., j Christchurch South), speaking to I the report in the House of Repre- | sentatives to-night, launched a vigorous attack on the Government I for the manner in which it control- ] led its expenditure.

Mr Howard said that the commission's report was the most damning ever presented to any Parliament, and that it bore out every charge that had been made by the Auditor-General.

"The Auditor-General is the only man standing between the Government and the people,"' said Mr Howard. '"He is the only man not under Government influence who has access to all accounts. We may think the Treasury occupies a similar position; but the Cabinet controls the Treasury. It is clear that we should strengthen the AuditorGeneral's position and make sure that this sort of thing cannot happen again in New Zealand. The accounts are not shown to the people, and the man in the street has no way of checking the Government':} expenditure. The same thing may happen again, and is happening again in other departments. The Unemployment Board control j £4,000,000 with no more check than that applied to the Native Department. It is said that every expenditure has to pass the Treasury; but this report is going to give rise to the suspicion that a Minister can dip into the purse whenever he likes."

The Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon G. W. Forbes): You're wrong.

Mr Howard said the Public Accounts Committee of the House had no right to examine anything that was not referred to it by the Government.

Mr Forbes: Everything has to be accounted for.

Mr Hovvaid: The expenditure of , the Native Department had to be | accounted for. j Mr S. G. Smith (C., New Plyi mouth): Irregularities have been I found in trade union matters.

Mr Howard: I don't know about that. But surely we should be superior to that sort of thing. Even if trade unions were bands of thieves that is no reason why we should have any doubts about the regularity of our finances.

Mr Howard added that the Public Accounts Committee could not do the job the people thought it \va'> doing. In Britain the committee had the leader of the Opposition a;? chairman. The committee acted a.~ a brake to expenditure, and was o: assistance to ministers, and it had the right to examine every item in the account. The House could not blame the Native Department altogether for looseness in expenditure. Extravagance was a habit that grew in Government administration.

The Minister for Finance, continued Mr Howard, knew what was going on in the Native Department. "Mr Coates: Nonsense. Mr Howard: The Cabinet knew. Mr Coates: No.

Mr Howard withdrew this remark, repeating that he would bo surprised if the same state of affair: did not exist in unemployment administration. But now the House was asked to concentrate all it; attention on one Minister—the other nine went scot-free. What was tho Government going to do about it?