ARMY VEHICLES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 31, 5 August 1943, Page 7

ARMY VEHICLES

CHECK ON RUNNING*

The Audit Office agreed that the existing system of Army control of vehicle running, if properly carried out, should be reasonably satisfactory, and- if the criticism 'which from time to time was directed against what appeared unnecessary running of Army vehicles was indeed justified it meant that the officer in authority -had failed in His duty, said the Controller and Auditor-General (Mr. C. G. Collins) in his annual report to Parliament. The report stated that Army petrol accbunts, which covered the stage from purchase to issue .to vehicles, were examined in the case of two of the three military districts, and were found to be in order. As to the use of the , petrol after issue, Army instructions called for comparison of mileages, as recorded on the speedometer, of the relative vehicle, with the quantity of petrol consumed, but. in one of the two military districts for which records were examined it was found that the comparison had not been made. In consequence, there had been no check on petrol consumed by individual vehicles or on vehicle performances.

"The Army no longer requires the driver of a vehicle to record on a daily running sheetj" the report' continued, "the mileage run on each trip or the duty on which he is engaged, but issues him a running instruction signed by a responsible officer authorising the vehicle to proceed from its headquarters to a named destination. Apart from the supervision of responsible officers, the safeguard against illegal use of vehicles lies in the activities of the Provost Corps, whose duty it is to stop vehicles and satisfy' itself that drivers have the requisite running authority."