BUSINESS IN WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 31, 5 August 1943, Page 4

BUSINESS IN WAR

It is, perhaps, not to be expected, in the early stages of a war at any rate, that the vast material side of equipping, supplying, and feeding the Armed Forces should be conducted on the lines of "strictly business," but the observations of the Controller and Auditor-General in his annual report to Parliament on the control of Army, Navy, and Air Force stores (extracts from which appeared in "The Post" yesterday) reveal a situation in the fourth year ,of war far beyond the reasonable limits of tolerance. Admiral Bacon, in his book on the Battle of Jutland, describes war as essentially business, the biggest business a nation can undertake, and the scale of the present war. as reflected in the tremendous efforts of the Allies, particularly the British Commonwealth and the United States, shows how absolutely true the description is. But unless a business is managed on sound,

businesslike lines it cannot hope to succeed, and may end in a welter of waste and extravagance, dissipating the nation's' war effort. The AuditorGeneral does not go so far as.that, but he does disclose a disquieting position. He declares roundly that the stores records do not provide satisfactory safeguard against misappropriation, and are of little assistance to the Services in providing information regarding stocks available for use and in estimating future requirements. He speaks of "accounts which record issues in excess of receipts" and comments that "when such a record is allowed ■to stand without prompt investigation and adjustment by the officers immediately responsible, it becomes an absurdity, and indicates a want of earnestness and determination on .the" part of such officers to have matters put right."

The whole report bristles with such instances, and even then it cannot be presumed that the Auditor-General and his staff were able to cover the whole field of investigation and that the examples he quotes are more than indications of the state of affairs that exists. «It was noticeable in the last war that the administration steadily improved as time went on, and by the fourth year had reached a substantial degree of efficiency and economy. In the present case the Auditor-General notes that in December, 1941, the Audit Office drew the attention of the Army Department to the fact that no complete stocktaking had been made at the main depot for some years, and that apparently no stocktaking during the war was contemplated. In April, 1942, the Army Department replied that it ( was intended to institute a system of continuous and progressive stocktaking in all ordnance depots as soon as suitable personnel could be obtained. "This system , has not yet been introduced," comments the Auditor-General over a year later. No wonder that one Department, under criticism, "made a request to Treasury and Audit to have all past^ records wiped out and a fresh start made with opening balances of actual stocks in hand." This in a private firm would correspond to liquidation and reconstruction.

When he was a member of the National War Administration, Mr., S. G. Holland, Leader of the Opposition, made preliminary investigations which showed promise of yielding valuable results in tightening up this important branch of the management of war material. It is high time that the Government undertake a thorough clean-up of what might easily develop into a dangerous state of mismanagement and muddle. For security reasons there is not a full measure of publicity for all war expenditure. Details which would reveal the extent and character of war measures cannot be freely given. But this should not be allowed to excuse laxity. Publicity should be as complete as it can be, consistently with security, and to offset the limitation of published facts there should be the fullest and most searching scrutiny by Parliamentary committees or similar agencies that could at least put a private searchlight on the way business is done. The revelations of the Auditor-General can be answered only by prompt and sufficient measures of correction—not. by excuses.