Spending changes urged

Press, 14 August 1976, Page 3

Spending changes urged

PA Wellington Greater accountability for expenditure within Governiment departments should be placed formally with the permanent heads of departraents, the interim report of the Public Expenditure Committee said. The report, tabled in Parliament yesterday, said that the over-expenditure in a number of departments in 1975-76 exposed weaknesses in the placing of responsibility for spending trends within departments, particularly in advising and acting upon indications of overspending. “Responsibility for departments rests with Ministers, but because Ministers are not expected to be familiar with all the details of a department’s administration, it now seems desirable that greater accountability to Ministers for expenditure should be placed formally with permanent heads,” the report said. “This would overcome the present difficulty where there is no legal responsibility at any level in the administration of Government for excessive or unjustified over-expenditure.” The report said that a problem which persisted in | most departments was the! quality of accounting staff. It had been hard to recruit or retain well-qualified accountants because of the lack of relativity in work conditions and salary with those in the private sector.