STATE BALANCE-SHEETS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18772, 28 July 1924, Page 8

STATE BALANCE-SHEETS.

GOVERNMENT IN BUSINESS.

THE AUDITOR-GENERAL'S REPORT

[by telegeaph.—special

WELLINGTON. Saturday.

Government Departments are now required to produce balance-sheets annually and how the. scheme is operating is shown in the annual report of the Controller and Auditor-General, Colonel G. F. C. Campbell. The total number of bal-ance-sheets certified during the year was 70, as compared with 46 in the previous year.

"I am glad to be able to report," says the Auditor-General, " that considerable improvement has been shown in the preparation of these accounts which are much more uniform than was the case last year. In nearly all cases in which a department is controlling subsidiary undertakings separate profit ajnd loss or working accounts have been prepared on commercial lines. It is anticipated that next year separate accounts will be provided for all such undertakings. I would like to emphasise the fact that in cases where separate activities are carried on or whera separate institutions are being controlled by one department, a general statement showing the total net result of the working of the department as a whole for the year would be of little value as a guide to administrative efficiency. Each separate subsidiary account should be complete in itself so that it can bo separately analysed. Otherwise it will be impossible to compare the results obtained ir. similar establishments carried on in different places with a view to the adoption of the most economical methods of administration in all of them. It would be equally impossible to disclose to the country the actual cost of these separate undertakings."