State’s Loss Of £159,200 on Potato Surplus

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 August 1949, Page 8

State’s Loss Of £159,200 on Potato Surplus

WELLINGTON, This Day (0.C.).— The net cost of £159,200 to the Marketing Department for its purchases of surplus South Island potatoes last year and for meeting claims for losses when for a, time consignment of potatoes from certain North Island districts was prohibited is discussed in the report of the Controller and Auditor-General (Mr J. P. Rutherford} presented to the House of Representatives. The report said that in 1948 the department. became liable under its contract to buy some 44,000 tons of potatoes which were surplus to requirements. Some of the stocks acquired were disposed of but it was necessary to dump a considerable portion. The cost of this had been charged to the vote-“stabilisation subsidies.”

In grading South Island potatoes some substantial payments to graders were noted in the report, which said one firm received £B5O for grading the equivalent of 102,000 sacks in approximately six 'weeks. According to normal practice half of this cost was met by the grower and half by the purchaser—the department. “Other graders received what appears to be correspondingly high reward for the work done by them and the Audit Office suggested that in the special circumstances in which a large surplus of potatoes over requirements was graded the rate might reasonably be reviewed, but the department did not agree,” the report added.

Dealing further with the year’s work of the Marketing Department, the Auditor-General said that the apple and pear growers’ pool account showed a debit balance of £B9OO for the year ending December 31 last. This amount represented over-pay-ments to growers which were made because of a miscalculation of the final payout rate. “In previous years it would have been possible for the department to have recovered an item of this nature from next year’s distribution but under the new organisation this is not possible,” said the report. “The Audit Office is not aware what action the department proposes to take to clear the balance.”