HANDSOME GIFTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17909, 11 October 1921, Page 9

HANDSOME GIFTS.

MONEY, SHIPS AND STORES.

MANY MILLIONS TO RUSSIA.

PARLIAMENT NOT CONSULTED. [IBOM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] LONDON. August 25A report by the Committee of Public Accounts discloses instances of the remarkably free way in -which the property of the British taxpayer has been distributed. The departments in conjunction with the Treasury, it appears, exercise a financial device called virement " mainly by which," the committee report, " expenditure not specifically provided for in the votes of the House of Commons can be incurred with impunity in anticipation of Parliamentary sanction. - '

In tiie Navy Accounts surpluses of £7,500,000 on certain votes were used to the extent of £4,000,000 to meet overspending on other votes, or, in one case, on sections of a vote.

The report calls attention to very gifts of public property made without the consent of Parliament to Allied Powers, Dondnioua, and institutions, and the opinion is expressed that where the value exceeds £10,000, the concurrence of Parliament should be first obtained. Such concurrence, it is added, would surely add to the value of the gifts in the eyes of the recipients. Gifts to Australia. " Not to mention smaller items," says the report, "we note in the Navy Accounts, H.M.S. Encounter, with certain guns and stores, to the Australian Commonwealth; three mine-sweeping sloops, value about £73,000 each, together with their equipment, to the Australian Commonwealth ; two submarine engines, with certain spare parts, to the Royal Australian Navy; two H class submarines, with torpedoes and stores, to Canada; certain hulks to an Allied Government. It is celarly a serious matter that ships of the British Navy should be given away without the consent of Parliament." No mention 6eems to have been made of the gift of H.M.S. Chatham, or of a few aeroplanes to New Zealand, though probably these items would come under the heading of una'.nthorised gifts, to which the commit'.ce draw attention. In the Army Accounts the committee find that "surplus non-marketable stores, the value of which when new was £2,000,000, were handed over without charge to the Polish Government, with Treasury sanction." Again, stores, etc., were issued to the Russian forces between November 11, 1918, and March 31, 1920. to a value roughly estimated at £17.828,000. These were surplus to requirements and mainly non-marketable. Their full nominal value as new was approximately £52 millions. There was also given in cash at the same time a sum of £6.697.000. The gifts above quoted were made a. long time after the signing of the armistice.

An Officer Dismissed. The Deport refers to " the sale by private treaty in April, 1920, for £5 a ton, of material lying at a London depot and described as 170 tons of miscellaneous kite balloon scrap." Some months afterwards, as the result of departmental store audit, it came to light that a large proportion of the material was not covered by .the designation of scrap and that most of it was worth considerably more than £5 a ton. This is borne oat by an approximate valuation which puts the value at from £1800 to £2500. This, however, was only made after the matter had been raised before the committee, and when the stores themselves had long ago been disposed of and there was no opportunity of investigating their condition. The deputy controller who sanctioned the sale without inquiry into the character of the goods, had left the service of the department and could not recall the circumstances; but the officer who recommended the sale had his services terminated forthwith. Although the total amount at stake in this instance is comparatively small, compared with many of the transactions of the Disposal Board, we regard it as a bad case and are glad that disciplinarv action was taken against the officer principally concerned." Reference is also made to a gift of 50 surplus aeroplanes to Greece, the disastrous loss of £4.000,000 on the national shipyards, and the loss of £24,500,000 in- j curred by the Sugar Commission.