Roading money not spent

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33533, 14 May 1974, Page 12

Roading money not spent

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND. The Minister of Works and Development (Mr Watt) has launched an inquiry into why the National Roads Board had a cash surplus last year.

! Estimates of the surplus vary between ssm and slom. Last week Mr Watt criticised municipalities for i underspending, but it is now lapparent that his own department underspent. In Auckland yesterday Mr ; Watt said he found it disturbing that the money alloj cated to the department might not have been spent. “While this money can be carried over to this year, ris- ■ ing costs mean it won’t go as far as it would have last year,” he said. Mr Watt said that if the j department was at fault he I would instruct jjistrict com-

missioners of works to keep a closer watch on expenditure in the State sector, to ensure that available money was spent. Much of the work on State highways was delegated to county councils, said Mr Watt, and the inquiry would show whether the councils had underspent on their State highway projects. “It could be that this is 'the area where the N.R.B. allocation was underspent, Ibut it will need a detailed investigation before all the facts are known,” Mr Watt !said. „