AUDITOR’S REVIEW

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 255, 25 September 1935, Page 7

AUDITOR’S REVIEW

LOCAL BODY FUNDS. STATE DEPARTMENT LOSSES. (By Telegraph.—Special to Standard.) WELLINGTON, Sept. 25. Local bodies gain a good word from the Auditor-General, in his annual report, for the satisfactory position of audits, the majority having last year shown a commendable desire to have their accounts audited with promptitude. _ In specifying a list of misappropriations of local body funds last year, involving a total of £2435, the report states that in one important case fraud was made easy by the practice of Ideal body members in signing blank cheque forms and leaving them to be completed by the official concerned; but steps had been taken to have this practice discontinued immediately. The ' recent economic difficulties are reflected in the sums written off various departmental accounts as being irrecoverable owing to the debtors being unfinancial. The Lands Department’s total is £21,156, while the losses on the realisation of properties include £6569 by the Public Service Superannuation Board, £14,141 by the Public Trustee, and £2720 by the State Advances Office. The Treasury secured the writing off of £74,731, as “miscellaneous investments reserve fund, loss on realisation.”

The net cost of exchange to the Public Account last year was £1,450,000, while interest savings through conversion now amount to £160,952 annually. After fifteen years’ experience of preparing departmental accounts on commercial lines the opinion is expressed that the rates of depreciation charged in the past have been in nearly all cases too high, and that there is no doubt that many assets which have been written down to the extent of practically the full original value still possess many years of useful life. Depreciation is to be calculated in future on the annually reducing value of the assets instead of the original value as formerly.