AUDITOR’S COMPLAINTS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 288, 2 November 1934, Page 13

AUDITOR’S COMPLAINTS.

ABOUT NATIVE AFFAIItS. Eighty complaints by the Controller and Auditor-General concerning the expenditure ’of funds on behalf of the Maori people are reported to have been proved by the Natjve Affairs Commission, which discusses each complaint and makes both individual and general comment thereon. The Commissioners explain that they did not consider it necessary to report on complaints or charges which had not been proved, nor on complaints where the policy might be justifiable such as the granting of concessions to workmen, free houses, electric light, mutton and butter. There were 41 of such complaints. . , ~ jts regards a complaint as to tne Rotorua office in the Waiariki district, the Commission found that the stores system and the ordering of stores were unsatisfactory. In some cases the stores clerk knew nothing of the tact of stores having been ordered and delivered until the question of payment arose. The tracing or accounting for issues of stores was impossible, btores records were in arrears. The purchase of live stock and the disposal of same was obscure. Arrangements as to payment of wages and check on payment were poor and insufficient. In respect of the ltanana- development scheme there was no control account and the accounts were in no way reconciled with those of the head office. There were delects in the stores accounting system, and roany issues were unaccountable for. there was a shortage of 640 posts and 7o strainers, and the shortage in battens was approximately 7000. It is noted that at the stocktaking of the Tuparoa scheme on March 31 last there was a shortage of 1900 sheep— about 20 per cent. This shortage might be reduced when a proper mustering was had, but an excessive shortage was still likely. _ At the Rotorua office there were incomplete records regarding the 1932 crop of potatoes. Out of a crop of 47* tons, only 13 tons were accounted f °There were many complaints regarding unemployment relief and payments. Nine cases of irregularities were reported in the Ruatoria district. Examples are given, including the case of a man who collected £2 17s unemployment pay, although he did not work on the job. He signed the voucher so that an old-age pensioner would be able to get tobacco and stores. A sum of £l4 5s was paid to two Maoris, who sought reimbursement for having employed members of

a Maori football team in order to provide them with pocket money while training. The footballers never worked on the job of grubbing rushes. There can be no doubt that there was great extravagance in the use of motor vehicles at Rotorua. The freedom of this use may have added to the attractiveness of the schemes in the early stages, hut we think that Head Office should have devised a policy long before 1933, and that the Rotorua office should have been directed and helped to carry it out. The wrong use of these vehicles only added to the overhead cost of development. Steps have now been taken in conjunction with the Public Works Department to control the use of these vehicles in a proper manner. Oiling and greasing of vehicles was neglected by the Maoris, thus necessitating heavy repair bills.