The Dominion THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1933. AWAITING THE COMMITTEE'S REPORT

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 69, 14 December 1933, Page 8

The Dominion THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1933. AWAITING THE COMMITTEE'S REPORT

It would be improper at .this stage to discuss the questions that have been- engaging the attention of the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives for the past two ddys, and concerning which the committee is to report to Parliament to-day. In view of the wide public interest aroused, hovyever, it may be usetul to consider the general responsibility of Parliament in such matters, find the particular courses of action that were, and are, open to it in the present instance. A good deal of nonsense was talked by Labour members in the debate upon Mr. Coates’s motion to refer the report of the Controller and Auditor-General to the Public Accounts Committee. The facts are simple. On Wednesday of last week the report was laid on the fable of the House. It contained a general reference to the way Parliament was.losing. its control of public funds, and made a series of specific complaints, those affecting one department being, as we remarked next morning, so grave as to call for publication of all ’ the available facts. On Thursday afternoon the Prime Minister was asked for further information _ about alleged irregularities in that department. He replied by reading a letter from the Auditor-General giving details of the intensive Audit Office investigation already in progress. The Opposition, whose leader -raisea the question, apparently was satisfied with this form of inquiry. It was left for The Dominion to insist that the findings must come before Parliament. - , . . In view of this acquiescence on Thursday in a secret departmental investigation (with no explicit provision that the results would be available to Parliament) ■■ the Labour opposition on Monday to the suggestion of an immediate'inquiry by a committee of the House, on which there is strong Labour representation, would have been incomprehensible to anyone without experience of the peculiar spasmodic energy with which the Opposition is afflicted. The Minister of Finance, in moving the motion, pointed out that several departments were affected by the criticism. He thought it fair that the heads of those departments should have an opportunity of explaining. Since they could not be called to the Bar of the House to explain, the logical course was to invite them to meet the Public Accounts Committee. Not only did this extend to the public officers concerned their rights under one of the most elementary rules of British justice—that no one should be condemned unheard; —t>ut also it enabled an immediate Parliamentary inquiry into thq affairs of the department that is being overhauled by the Audit Office. It was a direct attempt by the Government to recover for Parliament some of the authority over finance which it is stated to have lost. For z the Public Accounts Committee is a true cross-section of the House, with representatives from all three recognised parties, as'well as the Independent group. When Parliament appoints one of its own corrtmittees to investigate any problem, Parliament’s complete authority thereover is conserved. When a Royal Commission is set up, it is of necessity invested with some of the powers of which Parliament is the ultimate repository. That procedure is sometimes the best to adopt; but it ought never to be adopted lightly; and especially in matters affecting its own constitutional privileges Parliament must be jealous of its control.' It,is not likely that Mr. Coates was looking for applause when he called the Public Accounts Committee to* the aid of the House, any more than he could have expected the Opposition to boil over; yet the fact remains that his was a positive step toward reasserting the sovereignty of Parliament over the finances of the country. Neither the Audit Office nor a Royal Commission could possibly have reported to Parliament this session. Parliament’s own committee is to report today. It may not have all the information it wants; but it will have enough to advise what further action, if any, may be desirable. • Moreover, the responsibility of receiving the committee’s report, and of deciding what is to be done with it, lies not with the Government or with any department of the Government, but with,Parliament, where it belongs.