THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22391, 11 April 1936, Page 10

THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS

The Prime Minister states that the policy of the Government in future will be to call Parliament together as soon as possible after the close of each financial year, on March 31. He Ijopes also that it will be possible to have the results for the year available much earlier, as they are in Britain, in the hope that the Budget for the following year may be produced more promptly. It has long seemed anomalous that while the British Treasury can announce on April 1 what the outcome of the year which closed the day before has been, in New Zealand nothing has customarily been revealed until about the first week in June. With this delay and the consequent holding up of the Budget until the end of July or the beginning of August, a financial year is often half over before expenditure has been officially approved. If the new Government can alter this system it will have introduced a useful reform. But it is not so simple as might appear. The difficulties were detailed by the Auditor-General in his annual report some two years ago. He explained that the Public Account contains many accounts, on only one of which, the Ordinary Revenue Account, does the surplus or deficit depend. Therefore, at the end of the year it is necessary to allocate transactions to their various accounts before the position of the Ordinary Revenue Account can be ascertained. There are other factors of a book-keeping nature making for delay. The last difficulty the Auditor-General quotes should be capable of treatment. He states that departments often hold up until the end of the year transfers and transactions which could be handled earlier. Thus the Audit Office is overwhelmed with a rush of work at its busiest time. If this is prevented, if any means can be devised for simplifying accountkeeping in general, what Mr. Savage hopes may be accomplished. It will be so much the better if it can be.