13

H.—33c

Robert Joseph Collins sworn and examined. 25. The Controller and Auditor-General.] What is your name and official position?— Robert Joseph Collins, Assistant Secretary to the Treasury, and Accountant. 26. How long have you been in the Government service?—l have been forty years in the Government service, of which twenty-seven years have been served in the Treasury. 27. Have you filled the position of Accountant to the Treasury since the 31st March, 1903?— Yes; I have been Accountant for fifteen years. 28. But you have, have you not, been absent on leave since that date?— Yes; six months, to England, with the New Zealand rifle team, and occasionally a few days. 29. How is a payment which is authorised to be made to any particular person, and to be so saade as a charge to the Public Account, entered in the books of the Treasury? —On receipt of the voucher in the Treasury it is numbered, the numbers being in consecutive order from No. 1 upwards for the year No two vouchers bear the same number. The voucher is entered in the Treasury Abstract-book under the vote and item. The number of the voucher, the name of claimant, particulars of service, date of service, and the amount are so entered. Then the vouchers are entered in requisition or schedule, giving the number of each voucher, the amount of it, and the vote or other authority for the payment. The requisition, together with all the vouchers in support of it, is sent to the Audit Office, from which the vouchers are returned on the Audit Office being satisfied that they are correctly entered in the requisition. The bank order necessary to the payment of these vouchers is issued by the Audit Office and sent to the Treasury. The requisition is filed in the Audit Office as its record of the payments passed. On the return of the vouchers to the Treasury, cheques are prepared in favour of the different claimants, and are entered up under the name of the branch of the bank on which they are drawn. A copy of such is sent to the relative bank as the authority to pay the cheque on the countersignature of the officer named therein. A register is kept in the Treasury of the address to which each cheque is sent. Such register gives the number of the voucher, the number of the cheque, and the name and address of claimant. The cheque is posted direct to the claimant or his agent, except in the case of payments of salaries, when the cheque is sent to the officer in charge of the office; or on payments to Natives, when the cheque is posted with the voucher to the countersigning officer. The voucher for acquittance is sent to the countersigning officer, who, after obtaining the acquittance and countersigning the cheque, returns the voucher to the Treasury, where it is filed in numerical sequence. 30. But before a voucher is passed for payment by the Audit Office and sent on to the Treasury to be put into requisition, what is the course of dealing with the voucher ?—All claims against the Government are entered on Treasury voucher form and sent to the Department on account of which the expenditure is incurred. The claim is then stamped by the Department with the-date of receipt and entered in the alphabetical register, as required by Treasury regulations. This register shows the date on which each claim is received by the Department, giving the name of the claimant, service, and amount of claim, the date on which it is sent on for audit, and the dates on which, if returned for correction or otherwise, it is so returned and resent for audit. If cancelled, it would be noted in the register. The claim, if found to be correct, is charged by the Department to the proper vote and item, then signed by the Under-Secretary or other officer authorised by the Minister for that purpose, and sent on to the Audit to be examined and passed. The Audit shall pass such voucher and send it to the Treasury, being first satisfied (1) that the voucher is in due form, and that the computations therein are correct; (2) that the payment is authorised by the Minister for the time being administering the Department for which the service is performed, or by some person duly appointed by him to authorise the same; (3) that the expenditure is charged upon the voucher against the proper vote and fund provided by Parliament for the same. 31. Then, the course of a claim against the Government would be the entry of it in several registers? —Yes; there are at least four records kept in which every claim is entered—one in the Department against which the claim is made and which would authorise it, one in the Audit Office, and two in the Treasury. So that if a voucher were lost or destroyed it would still appear in the records of the issue of the money out of the Public Account. Even if the payment was recalled, the record would still exist. 32. Now, what is the course taken with a voucher for a payment made by an imprestee?— In the matter of a payment out of imprest moneys the voucher or receipt taken by the imprestee is forwarded by him to the Treasury in support of his Imprest Account. After being noted in the Treasury it is passed on to the Department against which the payment is chargeable, for approval and authorisation. The voucher is then subjected to precisely the same treatment as a direct-payment voucher. It is sent on to Audit for examination After passing Audit is is entered in Treasury Abstract-book and Audit Office Requisition. The requisition, together with the vouchers in support of same, is sent on to the Audit Office before credit can be given to the officer, being the imprestee, out of whose account the payment is made. In this case there is a record in each Department as before of the payment having been made. On the Audit Office passing the requisition the vouchers are returned to the. Treasury and filed. 33. Is care taken in the Treasury invariably to call over the entries of the vouchers aftei such entries are made, to insure accuracy?— Yes, it is the rule to do so. 34. Have you examined the entries in the Treasury books to see whether any of them was fo a payment for the reorganization or inspection of Defence stores?— Yes, I have. 35. Were there any entries of such payments? —No. 36. Did you find entries of payments to Captain Seddon or R. J. Seddon or R. J. S. Seddon \ —Yes. 37. Did you take a note of all such entries?--Yes. The result of my investigation disclosed the only payments made to him during the period commencing on the 31st March, 1903, were in