PUBLIC EXPENDITURE

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 28, 1 August 1930, Page 8

PUBLIC EXPENDITURE

CONTEOL BY PAELIAMENT

AUDITOR-GENERAL'S

COMMENT

Comment on the fact that, a large proportion of the annual expenditure of Parliament is governed by pormanent appropriations and is thus freed from the annual control of Parliament is made by the Controller and AuditorGeneral (Colonel G. F. C. Campbell) in his annual report to Parliament. It is pointed out that an amendment made last year has the effect of bringing expenditure amounting to several millions within the direct control _oi Parliament, and remedies the more important instances in which such control had not previously been provided. "There will, however," says Colonel Campbell, "still remain a large amount of expenditure not subject to annual appropriation, and, though it may not be considered desirable to bring the whole of such expenditure into the annual Appropriation Act, it would appear idvisable in tho interests of proper control that an estimate of all expenditure to be made from the various separate accounts under permanent appropriations should be submitted to Parliament in order that the full programme or Government expenditure for the year may be brought under review, instead of portion, only of such expenditure. Such an estimate is at present submitted in the case of expenditure under permanent appropriations from the. ordinary revenue account, but not m the ease of such expenditure from other accounts. . ij. • "Apart from the question of obtaining effective control of expenditure, the system of providing for expenditure by permanent appropriation rather than by annual votes has serious disadvantages. Tho statutory provisions regulating the expenditure require to be of a very detailed nature if control is to be effective, and, as a consequence, the amount of detailed financial legislation in New Zealand is probably without parallel in any other British country. There is always the possibility that, in the course of the administration of an Act, unforeseen changes in the circumstances governing expenditure or slight variations of Government policy relating to receipts and expenditure may involvfe conflict with the pormanent appropriation provisions, of the Act. The financial legislation is now becoming so complex that it is a matter of serious difficulty at times for tne audit to ensure that statutory financial provisions are properly complied with. . "The position is rightly viewed with disfavour by those responsible for drafting financial legislation, and also by those whose duty it is to carry it into effect. The position should not, however, be remedied by admitting or abrogating'the regulative provisions in financial statutes without providing other measures to take their place, as the result of such omission would be to-weak-en, if not to nullify, Parliamentary control of public finance. The remedy suggested is to,provide for the detailed control of expenditure oi! each separate aceounti by means of the annual iappropriations (which are embodied in the annual Appropriation Act and thus* giving statutory force) instead of by permanent detailed 'financial prov,isoris in the Statutes themselves. If the system followed in other parts of the Empire were adopted arid the functions of each separate account were regulated in the governing Act by comparatively broad statutory .provisions, the details of expenditure from each account being regulatecVby. means of the .annual appropriations, the necessity for detailed regulative provisions in the ■ Statutes would to a large extent be obviated, and the financial legislation would be much simplified, while at the same time the effective Parliamentary control over expendture would not be in any way impaired, but, on the contrary, would be strengthened."'., .