Members fault style of N.R.B. accounts

Press, 22 June 1989, Page 5

Members fault style of N.R.B. accounts

By

OLIVER RIDDELL in

Wellington

The National Roads Board is having difficulty reconciling its 1988-89 accounts in a way its board members can identify with. It has changed from cash-flow to accrual accounting which shows its fixed assets to be high, leading to the implication it is underspending. “I don’t believe roading is over-funded but at a time of Government spending cut-backs the board is very vulnerable to the charge that it is over-funded, based on the way these figures are presented,” said the chairman of Works Corp, Mr John Cameron.

The Mayor of Rotorua, Mr John Keaney, said that on the figures it looked as if local authority roading was underspent by $7 million. Some local authorities had already made commitments, some job starts had been delayed for various reasons, and some local authority works had been cheaper than expected, said the director of roading, Mr Ron Fisher. “Surely there must be an easier way of preparing accounts than this agglomerate of figures,” Mr Keaney said. “We want a diagnosis and not just all these figures.” Mr Cameron said he had no difficulty with the figures, but most managements would provide their boards with a commentary as well. “We want to be able to identify what is happening in specific areas such as flood damage and subsidised local authority works,” said the Mayor of Ashburton, Mr Jeff Geering, “and we would prefer this identification to be done monthly.”