£76,866 DEFICIT ON N.B.S. OPERATIONS

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27402, 15 July 1954, Page 12

£76,866 DEFICIT ON N.B.S. OPERATIONS

PARLIAMENT

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, July 14. The National Broadcasting Service had a deficit last financial year of j £76,836. a*ter provision had been made for taxation amounting to £43,019. This is revealed by the Comptroller and Auditor-General (Mr C. J. Atkin),; whose annual report was presented to; Parliament today. The loss on the service’s non-com-1 mercial operations was £120,733, which included a deficit of £86,236; from the National Orchestra and concert presentation. Commercial busi- j ness resulted in a surplus of £86.886,1 but provision for taxation reduced this,' to £43.867, leaving an over-all deficit of £76,866 The main items of revenue were radio licence fees amounting toj £642.010, and sales of station time, totalling £712,677. This increase in, revenue over the previous year of; £31,733 and £48.400 respectively was more than offset by increased pro-1 gramme and general administrative I expenditure. Numerous other items involving the public revenues are commented on in Mr Atkin’s report. Referring to the Captain Cook and the Captain Hobson, the ships used for the conveyance of migrants from Britain to New Zealand, Mr Atkin said that the conversion costs of the two ships amounted to £1,774.000. This figure, added to the operating costs, gave a gross cost of £3.098,099, or £327 a head for 9457 assisted persons. Unauthorised Expenditure Discussing unauthorised expenditure! during the year ended March 31, 1954/ Mr Atkin said that over-expenditure * in some cases was caused by the inability of votes to absorb the impact of the recent general wage increase. Out of 70 votes, 17 exceeded the amount authorised by Parliament, the principal ones being air (£1,236,045), army (£605,859), education (£369,558), education buildings (£103,607), stabilisation (£51,633), police (£178,820) telegraph extension (£334.378), and war and other pensions (£161,773). The over-all amount, however, was within the prescribed limits. As the sum appropriated last year was £286,041,370, the limit for unauthorised expenditure was £4.290,620 Ils, and the expenditure charged aginst this heading was £3,690,697 3s The report showed that the public debt at March 31. 1954, was £706,461,821 17s lid. This represented aa increase for the year of £36,682,378 The balance of the 1914-18 war debt was repaid during the year. This item reached a peak of £81,843,000 m 1922, but since then has been steadily reduced by the application of revenue and the proceeds of the sale of war-time assets towards repayment The total amount appropriated to the Post Office Account—£lB,72s,ooo —was over-spent by £169,340. The

Post Office incurred a loss in 1949-50 for the first time since 1925-26, and further losses occurred in 1951-52 and 1952-53. Mr Atkin commented that it seemed equitable that an adequate return should be received by the Post Office for all services rendered to other departments. He said that, after taking into account the slightly increased commission resulting from the increase in the radio licence fee payable from January 1 last, the present annual loss for this service rendered by the Post Office exceeded £36.000. This represented, in effect, a subsidy to the Broadcasting Account. Local Body Administration Mr Atkin said that quite apart from the question of amalgaraltton of localbody districts, the substantial number of minor bodies operating in areas controlled by territorial local authorities would seem to indicate the desirability of these functions being taken over by the major local authorities. The saving in administrative work, including audit time, would be substantial

Later in the report, he said that many of these small local authorities were dormant or nearly so, or were operating on a scale so small as not to warrant the expense and administrative work involved in continuing their existence. Examples which might be quoted were certain small drainage boards that were no longer active, and which new did little more I than levy and collect special rates to meet the annual charges on loans i still owing; and a harbour board , which ceased to operate many years . ago. but which still paid a secretary’s salary, bank charges, and audit fees. Store losses for the year totalled £491.826, against £373,554 for the previous year. The increase was explained by the inclusion of a number of large losses which came to notice during the year. These include aircraft crashed (£148,804), losses by fire at the Linton ordnance depot (£11,695), losses by fire in the Hope Gibbons Building, Wellington (£14J»13), Army store losses at Waiouru Camp (£27,619), and railway carriages at Tangiwai (£15,571). Because of the lack of staff, no stock-taking was done in some Army, Air Force and Navy establishments during the Second World War and the immediate post-war years, and in some cases the first post-war stocktaking was still in progress, said Mr Atkin. The stock-takings completed had revealed heavy deficiencies in many lines and substantial surpluses in others.

Discussing the Murupara project, the report said that because of the heavy commitments of public funds both by way of advances to the Tasman Pulp and Paper Company and direct expenditure, the Audit Office was concerned to see that there was effective control and co-ordination of all aspects of the project.