NO DISHONESTY

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 125, 22 November 1935, Page 13

NO DISHONESTY

CHARGES REFUTED

ONLY MATTER OF FORM

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

ELTHAM, This Day. At a meeting of electors at Mangatoki last night, Mr. C. A. Wilkinson, Independent candidate for Egmont, said in reference to the controversy over the public accounts: "Behind the statement of Mr. Hislop, Leader of the Democrat Party, relative to the Auditor-General's criticism of the public accounts there is possibly an inference that these accounts have been 'cooked.' As a member of the Public Accounts Committee' in the House, I am in a position to combat that inference. I can unhesitatingly say there is nothing shady,in the transactions, if this is inferred. There is no question at all about the honesty of the whole business, and it is to be regretted that an attempt is made to make political capital out of the matter, which is capable of a perfectly logical explanation. It is entirely a matter of the form in which the public accounts are kept. The Treasury officials hold one view and the Auditor-General the opposite. For instance, one Department has a credit balance of, say, £100,000. Another Department is in debit and requires a loan of, say, £20,000, which it obtains from the Department in credit. The accounts as presented then show one department with £ 100,000 cash and the borrowing department with £20,000 cash, thus increasing the actual cash balance by £20,000. The AuditorGeneral claims, and I think rightly so, that only the actual tangible amount of £100,000 should be shown as cash, in place of £120,000, as is the custom at present. There are, of course, other matters complained of by the AuditorGeneral, but all are capable of satisfactory explanation. There is not the slightest shadow of dishonesty in these transactions, and I make this statement in fairness to the Minister of Finance and the Treasury officials.