THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22137, 15 December 1933, Page 10

THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS

PARLIAMENTARY CONTROL TREASURY REPLIES ? TO CRITICISM ' (From On* Pabuamentabt Refobtkb.) WELLINGTON,. December 14. ; A denial of the Auditor-general’s claim that parliamentary control of expenditure is weakening is made by the Treasury in a statement which was submitted to the Public Accounts Committee in reply to bi« charges. . , r . The Auditor-general, (Mr G. F. C. Campbell) in his report mentioned two specific cases in which legislation bad recently been enacted giving powers of expenditure to Ministers of the Crown. These eases were examined by the Treasury, which claimed that one did notinvolve expenditure, but merely an equitable adjustment between accounts, while the other was only a matter of the in-> terhal management of debt. .. . / “ Balance sheets are required by statute, and steady progress ’is being made ia eliminating duplication and co-ordinat-ing these accounts with the cash accounts," ■ stated the Treasury. “ The balance sheets are subject to audit. AU expenditure, however, must be authorised by Parliament -in one form or another, and passes through the cash accounts subject to a check at every step by audit. Far from weakening the Earliamentary control bf v expenditure, the alance sheets and accompanying profit and loss accounts must strengthen it, for the real position of each activity ie thereby disclosed and the House ig able to judge the administration. The vote for expenditure in itself,* even, in comparison with the previous year, gives no indication as to the financial position of any department. Every voucher passe* through the Audit Office and is checked against its correct appropriation,; but parliamentary control of expenditure does not require the mass of detail that can be better dealt with in the balance sheets and revenue accounts to be duplicated in the abstract of tpe cash accounts, where a more intelligent picture of the financial position as a whole can be presented by summarising the expenditure." The Treasury agreed that ,in principle uniformity and continuity in the form of the public account were desirable, but the principle should not be carried-to such lengths as to prevent desirable reforms. As a matter of fact, in fecent year* a great deal had been done in the matter of suitably grouping, the revenue and'expenditure and generally rendering the account simpler and more easily understood by the public. The abolition of a great many of the permanent appropriations wag a reform that was strongly advocated by the Auditor-general himself. The Auditor-general’s complaint that the old age, widows’, miners’, and South t African War pensions had been reduced sooner than the legislation allowed wag described by the Treasury as a technicality. The matter had been referred to the Prime Minister, who had decided that legislation was not necessary, and consequently no further action had been taken.

Referring to the statement of irregularities occurring in the. High Commissioner’s office, the Treasury said it would appear from the entry that the defalcations were made by members of the High Commissioner’s staff. This was not altogether correct, for one of the two • men concerned was an audit officer wljo wa« on the staff of the Controller and Auditorgeneral. The frauds were only possible owing to false certificate* signed by this officer. Furthermore, it had been established that a second audit officer in London was aware; of the irregularities, but dja not report them until after they had been .discovered by the Secretary of the New Zealand Treasury. It was stated also that certain unsatisfactory features in connection with a London audit officer had* been brought under the Auditor-gene-ral’s notice by the Prime Minister 12 months before the defalcations had been discovered.