Not Satisfactory.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 938, 7 December 1933, Page 10

Not Satisfactory.

Native Land Development

Accounts,

(“Star” Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, December 7. 7~)ECLINING to accept responsibility for the accuracy of the accounts connected w'ith Native land development schemes, the Controller and Auditor-General (Colonel G. F. C. Campbell), in his annual icport to Parliament yesterday, announced that investigations in the East Coast and Rotorua districts had revealed grave irregularities. “In my last report to Parliament,’ he stated, “I said that the accounts of the Native land development schemes were in an unsatisfactory condition, and that it had not been possible for me to make a complete audit of them. Since then, I regret to say, there has been no improvement, and errors and deficiencies in the expenditure in connection with both development schemes and Maori unemployed relief, due to the administrative methods adopted, have become more and more apparent. Further inquiries have proceeded. The impossibility of being able to exercise any effective check over the expenditure rendered it necessary for me to advise the Government from time to time of the position, and to state that I could not accept responsibility for the accuracy of the accounts. Certain changes in the administrative staff in Wellington have recently been made with a view to improving matters. Ordinary Methods Ignored. “ Local investigation by audit inspectors of development schemes in the East Coast and Rotorua districts is still proceeding, and although I am unable at this stage to make a full report the investigation has proceeded sufficiently far to indicate that there have been grave irregularities in the accounts and also in the method of purchasing and disposing of stores, live stock, etc. The Native Land Act, of 1931, confers unusually wide powers on the Native Minister, and it is in the exercise of these powers that the ordinary methods of administration which prevail in other Government departments have, to a large extent, been ignored, with the result that departmental control has been weakened, extravagant methods have been adopted and no proper records of many important transactions made.’’