ACCOUNTS OF PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE. (REPORT FROM THE CONTROLLER AND AUDITOR-GENERAL TO THE HON. THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.)

Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1894 Session I, B-09d

B.—9d

1894. NEW ZEALAND.

ACCOUNTS OF PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE. (REPORT FROM THE CONTROLLER AND AUDITOR-GENERAL TO THE HON. THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.)

Laid upon the Table, by the Hon. the Speaker.

The Honourable the Speaker of the House of Bepresentatives. The Controller and Auditor-General feels it to be his duty to report to the House of Bepresentatives, on whose behalf he is required by law to audit the public accounts, that he has been compelled to suspend the audit of the accounts of the Public Trust Office, pending such instructions as Parliament may think fit to issue in the following circumstances : — Amongst other charges made against the Audit Office, the Public Trustee has asserted that the cash in the office was not, as asserted by the Audit Inspector, counted by him at the end of the late financial year. The charge is therefore one of direct falsehood against the Inspecting Officer, and impugns the integrity of the audit for several past years. The Inspector is a gentleman who has been in the Audit Office for upwards of twenty years, and, the Controller and Auditor-General believes, after more than ordinary opportunities for testing his character, is quite incapable of telling an untruth. The Controller and Auditor-General has therefore suspended the audit of the Trust Office, pending such inquiry into the matter as Parliament may direct, and respectfully prays that your honourable House will be pleased to take such steps as may enable him effectively to audit the accounts of the Public Trust Office in future. James Edwaed FitzGeeald, 3rd October, 1894. Controller and Auditor-General.

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