THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22963, 19 August 1936, Page 10

THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS

PRESENTATION TO PARLIAMENT INCORRECT METHODS ADOPTED AUDITOR-GENERAL’S CRITICISM (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, August 18. Criticism of the way in which parts of the Public Accounts are compiled for presentation to Parliament is expressed in the report of the Controller and Auditorgeneral, Mr G. F. C. Campbell, which was tabled along with the Public Accounts for the year ended March 31, 1936, in the House of Representatives to-day. “ I regret that it is necessary for me once again to call the attention of Parliament to the unsatisfactory methods adopted in the compilation of some portions of the Public Accounts for presentation to Parliament,” the Auditor-general states Ir. the opinion of the Audit Depart ment the Public Accounts as ‘published do not in some respects rep resent the true position of the public funds of the Dominion, and although I am pleased to acknowledge that the Treasury has recently made some improvements the main objections raised in previous years remain unsettled.” Referring to what he describes as an incorrect method of showing the transactions between the accounts within the public account Mr Campbell states: “ The Treasury is empowered under the Public Revenues Act to make temporary transfers between the various subaccounts of the Public _ Account when required. No objection is raised to this practice, which is quite sound. When the year’s accounts are published, however, these transactions are not shown as payments in the cash account of the lending sub-account although they are shown correctly as cash received in the borrowing sub-account. The result is that the amount is reflected in the balances of both sub-accounts, and as the subaccounts are both within the Public Account the total balance of the latter account is thus shown as having been increased by the amount of the transfer every time a transfer is made, whereas no increase in the Public Account has actually taken place. The inflation thus shown has in some years amounted to many millions.” Mr Campbell also criticises the method of treating the exchange in the Public Accounts along the lines of previous reports. He contends that instead of the Government ap propriating a single sum to cover the whole of its exchange costs each department should be required to take a separate item on its Estimates to cover exchange charges. The Auditor-general also repeats his criticism of the practice of making some changes in the form of the accounts without the authbrity of Parliament, and of the failure to credit interest earned only to the account which provides the money for investment.