CORPORATION BALANCE SHEETS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14684, 18 November 1909, Page 4

CORPORATION BALANCE SHEETS

FUTILITY OF AUDITOR-GENERAL'S CERTIFICATES. AMENDMENTS SUGGESTED, At last night's meeting of the City Council Cr ]3arr, as chairman of the Finance Committee, had 60iie remarks to make cu the occasion of th-3- return from.the Auditorgeneral ot the duly certified balance sheet of the Dunedin City Corporation for the year ended March 31, 1909.

Ho explained initially that this luid been returned during bis absence sn Australia, and had been duly adopted by the council at a special meeting, at which, of course, lie was not present. Had lie been present he w.iuld have had eoim» remarks to make', but as lie was not, lie would like to mako some explanations of various points now. Councillors might nave noticcd that, though the Auditor-general placed his ccrtilicato on the balance shoot, be only did sr with sonle exceptions. Some councillors evidently could not have been, aware of this fact, or they would not have appeared so ehejriul as tlioy did, for largo sums of monay had been disallowed by tho Auditorgeneral, ami he (the speaker) naturally presumed the council would be responsible for the repayment of these amounts. That was a natural thought, but, as a. matter of fact, as far as he could understand, nobody would be one penny tho worse for these exceptions. The city treasurer told him that this year ho would make up the accounts from -tho point where tiiey were left off lost year, and the Auditor-general would simply go over them from the sumo point, and, perhaps, diaw up somo more objections, with a -like result. It appeared to him, if their accounts were as radically wrong as the report received from tho Auditor-,jeneral would lead thc-m. to believe, it was that official's duty to go furthoi, and call upon the council to rectify the wrong that had been made, and place them to tho accounts to which they should have been charged. If that were not done, his certificate was absolutely worthless—it was absolutely worthless in any case, for the objections were placed there and not -ictcd upon. He did not want to be understood :is saying that- an auditor's certilicato was worthless, but that a certilicato such as that was worthless if it was not acted upon. The proper tiling for them to do was to write to tho Auditor-general and ask him for his reasons for the objections, as well as to ask liini for his legal authority in saying , that 6oni3 charges had been made without legal authority. Ho was-told, however, by the stall' that they were tired of writing to the official department for explanations in this connection, for they never got any satisfaction.

Cr Ban- then cited one or two detailed instances of objections on the part of - tho-Auditor-general, and, criticising them, said lie thought the objections unfounded. A special reference was made to the tramways balance sheet as supplied to the Audit Dcpartinont. This, said Cr Barr, was l-oally not a balance sheet but nv.-is merely a statement of receipts and expenditure specially prepared in order to .comply with the re quirements of tho department. .It was different from-their own statement prepared every year. Formerly this matter had cost Hie council £200 in order to arrange matters for tho Audit Department, but probably next year tho committee would pat it in its proper place. STErS SUGGESTED. In summing up his remarks, Cr Barr said that he thought the time was fast approaching when tho whole question of corporation accounts should be taken into consideration, particularly by. the Dunedin Corporation, because it was the most interested of all the corporations. It, or the Municipal Association, should take steps to get the Government to placo the law with rcforcnce to municipal accounts where trading departments aro managed by corporations on a proper footing.. _ The trouble was that the law on this point had been framed at a time when corporations went very little into trading such as the Dunedin Corporation was now engaged in. It should provide that the municipal trading venture account should be compile! on commercial lines, showing profit and less accounts, etc. • Tlio Dunedin City Corporation was the second largest, trading concern in tho Dominion— the Union Steam Ship Company being first —and the accounts were necessarily very voluminous and complicated, but "it was very disheartening that accounts already complicated should bo made even more so by the necessity of complying with these requirements of an antiquated law.

Cr Barr concluded by referring to the work of simnlilicaiion •of accounts which had already been done by the Finance Coin-, inittec, and said that next year they hoped to do even more m this direction, and make tho balance sheet such as could easily bo grasped. Their own statement would be soparatod from the Government one, and printel a month or two earlier.