The Waikato Times. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1933. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTS.

Waikato Times, Volume 114, Issue 19124, 8 December 1933, Page 4

The Waikato Times. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1933. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTS.

The annual report of the Controller and Auditor-General which has been presented to Parliament discloses a state of affairs in the Public Accounts which is very disquieting. Even when allowances are made for what may be merely technical objections to certain financial manipulations, the serious comment of the State Auditor on this and other features of departmental expenditure and accounting indicates the need for a careful investigation of the position.

In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, it must be accepted that the Auditor-General’s criticism is made with all sincerity. Specific reference is made to the administration of the Native Land Settlement Accounts, and in this connection the Auditor-General recalls his previous warnings given to the Government. Notwithstanding his earlier comment on the position, he states, there has been no improvement, but grave irregularities have occurred. Extravagant methods have been adopted, and no proper records of many important transactions have been kept.

The responsibility for this state of affairs must fall primarily upon the person responsible for the administration of "the department. In view, however, of the fact that the Government was made cognisant of the position last year, the continuance of unsatisfactory methods places the responsibility collectively upon the members of Cabinet. If the position disclosed by the Auditor-General was serious, the elaboration given in the House of Representatives yesterday assumes the utmost gravity. Inasinuch as certain features have now been made the subject of police investigation they are removed from public comment, but there remains a need for the most searching and careful scrutiny of the whole field of departmental management.

•Dealing in more general terms with the whole programme of public expenditure, the Auditor-General is no less critical. He notes with concern the tendency to give statutory powers to members of the Government, for the appropriation of particular funds to particular purposes, by which in certain circumstances a Minister instead of Parliament has been made the sole judge of the propriety of a transaction. Inasmuch as the control of expenditure is constitutionally the prerogative of Parliament, it is questionable whether any legal right exists under which the present Parliament may, with or without legislative authority, divest itself of a function which it inherently possesses.

The tendency, also noted, to subordinate the Public Accounts which are prepared by the Treasury on a “ cash ” basis, to departmental balance sheets and revenue accounts, which do not record the money actually received and expended in any bne year, will be deplored by any who have attempted to follow for themselves the course of the Dominion’s finances. The absence, too, of uniformity and continuity in the presentation of the various classifications of the Public Accounts, tends to give an entirely erroneous impression, owing to the difficulty each year of obtaining accurate comparisons with previous years.

, The whole question of public finance is one which, in the light of the Auditor-General’s observations and criticism, should be submitted to a thorough and searching examination. The emergencies of the past three years may have excused certain emergency measures, but they do not condone —rather do they the more strongly condemn —any departure from the canons of sound and accurate accounting. '