B.—l [PT. IIJ

In a list of debtors to the Controller compiled as at 30th June the following amounts were in respect of debits outstanding for three months or more £ s. d. Government Departments .. .. •• 5,311 10 6 Reverse lend-lease .. .. .. •• •• 137,093 18 8 Other debtors .. ■ ■ • • • • ■ ■ 2,825 1 8 Total .. .. •• •• ..£145,230 10 10 The debts included in the foregoing total have in many cases been outstanding a very long time. In reply to an earlier Audit representation on the matter of outstanding accounts the Food Controller stated that " the majority of the accounts outstanding are Government Departments' accounts, and a particular review is being made at present with a view to adjustment of these outstanding claims. In future, outstandings, particularly private accounts, will be reviewed every month." In response to recent further Audit inquiries, the Food Controller stated that " this matter is well in hand and will be -completed at the earliest possible moment." (h) Ministry of Supply In my last report I mentioned that the Ministry had received certain supplies which were in excess of requirements or were not quite suitable for the purposes originally intended. Endeavours are being made to dispose of these supplies, and a considerable measure of success has been achieved. During the year ended 31st March, 1944, a Commodity Prices Committee of the Ministry was formed, and one of its duties is to prevent the importation of unsuitable supplies. An improvement in the matter of disposing of all supplies has since been noted. Losses in transit have occurred and are referred to later in the paragraph headed " Marine Insurance." Progress in accounting matters has been maintained by the Ministry and most of the relative problems have now been solved. There are still considerable arrears of work to be overtaken, but the volume of commodities handled has decreased and is still decreasing, and control is functioning satisfactorily. An internal Auditor and assistants have been appointed. That some previous criticism of past accounting was justified is shown by the fact that refunds of some £14,500 were obtained during the year as a result of further Audit inquiries into transactions of previous years. A further amount of £8,670 was recovered by the Ministry itself as the result of an investigation made by it at Audit request. The following are certain of the matters not yet finalized : — (a) Fixing the stabilized prices of bulk oils and petrol sold to oil companies since December, 1942. (b) Disposal of surplus stocks of the Ministry. (This is under definite action.) (c) Completion of inspection of books and stocks of agents of the Ministry. (Note. —For instance, the Ministry's steel stocks are handled by a company specially formed for the purpose in the latter part of 1942. The Ministry has maintained no financial accounts to show the result of its trading in steel, nor has it yet checked the accounts of the company or the company's agents to see that stocks are properly accounted for and the proceeds of all sales, less expenses, paid to the Public Account. Although no detailed general audit has been made by my Inspector, an investigation into the stock position revealed discrepancies between ledger balances and stocks on hand.) (d) Completion of the internal audit of the records of reserve stocks held by the Ministry itself, as distinct from agents, and reconciliation with physical stocktaking. A stocktaking was attempted at 31st March, 1945, but in respect of certain commodities the large stocks held and the nature of the stacking imposed by their bulk did not permit of satisfactory examination. iii—B. 1 [Pt. ll]

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