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Commit

of ascertaining whether these accounts are severally supported by Report proper vouchers, and ordered for payment by proper authority; that tee Public they have been accurately computed, and applied to the purposes Accounts, for which the money was voted; and that they are in accordance 1876. with statute and Treasury authority, and with the formal regulations of the particular department. In so doing, however, the comptroller and auditor-general, if unsatisfied in regard to a particular payment, decides nothing, but merely reports his opinion to Parliament; it is practically reserved to the House of Commons to decide, in doubtful cases, whether the money has or has not been expended in accordance with the intentions of Parliament. The Treasury minute then proceeds to discuss the nature and extent of the proposed audit in its application to military and naval accounts. In view of the excellent detailed audit to which these accounts are already subjected, the Treasury are of opinion that a second detailed examination of the same is not desired, but that a 'test' audit would satisfy the essential requirements of an independent audit, and avoid at the same time unnecessary labour and expense. They proposed, therefore, that the comptroller and auditor-general should undertake this duty, in respect to military expenditure in the first instance, and experimentally, with a view to the ultimate adoption of permanent arrangements for the extended audit of military accounts, and also, in concert hereafter with the lords of the admiralty, of a similar scheme for naval expenditure. Upon a copy of this minute being communicated to the secretary of state for war, he protested against the proposed reform, upon the ground that the application of a test audit by the comptroller and auditor-general to the appropriation accounts of moneys granted for army services would place difficulty in the way of the maintenance of the necessary authority of the secretary of state in the administration of the War department. The Treasury did not concur in this opinion, and while most desirous to act in concert with the secretary for war on all points, were compelled, in view of their responsibility under the Exchequer and Audit Act, and the repeated recommendations of the Public Accounts Committee, to appeal for a final decision upon the question to the Committee on Public Accounts. Whereupon the committee, being informed by the comptroller and auditor-general that he cordially concurred in the suggestions of the Treasury, and was prepared to give effect to the same as speedily as possible, expressed their desire that there should be no delay in the application, or hindrance to the smooth working of an audit of the army accounts, similar in character (although limited in extent) to that which has been so beneficially applied to the accounts of civil service expenditure. They furthermore stated their belief that the difficulties raised by

Third Rep. Come. Pub. Accts. Com. Pap. 1876, v. 8, p. 141.

Report the War Office would, on further consideration, be found to be more Commit- theoretical than practical, and capable of being readily solved by Accounts, care, discretion, and mutual forbearance. The committee also de

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Report of 1877.

clared their opinion that it was equally desirable to establish a test audit for naval as well as for military accounts." Accordingly, on March 6, 1877, the first report of the comptroller and auditorgeneral upon the appropriation account of the receipts and expenditure for army services for the year ended March 31, 1876, was laid before the House of Commons. Prefixed to this report is a brief narrative of the circumstances under which the test audit was commenced and conducted, noting the difficulties that had been encountered, and the satisfactory results already obtained in the introduction of the new system, and concluding with the expression of an opinion that there are no sufficient grounds for delaying the application of a similar test audit to the accounts of naval services.▾

In 1877 the committee presented but one report. This report, presented on May 16, reviewed the appropriation accounts for the year ending March 31, 1876, together with the reports of the comptroller and auditor-general thereon.

The committee again adverted to the necessity that Parliament should be duly informed, by a note in the estimates, appended to the vote for the salary or superannuation allowances, of any public officer who may be in receipt of extra payments for public services in addition to the fixed salary of his office (other than casual payments to reimburse him for expenses actually incurred), in order that the whole of the official emoluments received by any officer of the crown from whatever source may appear. They note, with satisfaction, the issue of a Treasury minute of September 15, 1876, enjoining this rule upon all the public departments. They are also of opinion that whenever such additional remuneration is paid out of a grant for another department, even for services rendered out of office hours, the head of the department, paying the salary or superannuation allowance, should be notified.w

In considering the question of enforcing individual responsibility upon public officers in respect to payments which have been dis. allowed by the committee, they approve of a course of procedure set forth in a Treasury minute of March 13, 1877, laying down, as it does, the principle that disallowances recommended by this committee can only be removed by the action of Parliament. The persons responsible for such irregular expenditure must remain chargeable therewith, unless and until the Treasury may recommend that

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the deficiency be made good by a special grant, voted by the House Report of Commons.*

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The committee then proceeded to comment upon the extended Accounts, audit into army accounts, which had been undertaken by the comp- 1877. troller and auditor-general, pursuant to the wishes heretofore repeatedly expressed by the committee, and they express their opinion upon certain points elicited in the course of the test examination of these accounts, and of the accounts of charges defrayed by the War Office on behalf of India.

In the year 1832, Sir James Graham, who was at that time first lord of the admiralty, introduced into the House of Commons a Bill for the better regulation of the naval accounts, the most prominent feature of which was a provision empowering the commissioners of audit to examine the accounts and vouchers of naval expenditure, side by side with the votes and estimates for the naval service; and to report the result of the comparison annually to the House of Commons. This Bill became law; and, pursuant to its requirements, the votes for naval services were, for the first time, arranged under distinct heads, or branches of expenditure, in the annual Appropriation Act; in a form which, with some slight alterations, has been observed ever since."

Prior to the introduction of this reform, the several amounts voted in supply for various navy services were added together, and included in the Appropriation Bill in a bulk sum, to the credit of the naval service generally. This practice was justified by the presumed impossibility of estimating beforehand, with any certainty, the probable sum required for each service. So long as it continued, the whole of the naval money, except that voted to defray the navy debt, could be legally applied to any one service; subject, of course, to future enquiry by the House of Commons, as to the expediency of such an appropriation.

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The appropriation audit cured this evil; and, in spite of some defects of detail, it has worked well. In 1846 a new Act was passed (the 9 & 10 Vict. c. 92), which Extended extended the operation of the audit to the accounts of accounts. military as well as naval expenditure. This Act also establishes the principles which should be applicable to the future extension of the appropriation check to other departments.a

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The efficiency of the new scheme of audit was further secured by the government not merely taking the votes for the distinct and separate naval services for which they were granted in Committee of Supply, but also restricting the application of the grants to payments actually made on behalf of the particular service within the period of the financial year.

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It should be observed, however, that the appropriation audit was not intended to limit the discretion of the responsible departments of state entrusted with naval or military expenditure, so as to prevent them from deviating from the directions of the Appropriation Act in cases of necessity, but merely to secure such a revision of their accounts, by an independent authority, as would suffice to detect any departure from the particular application of the votes which had received the sanction of Parliament. Both the Admiralty and the War departments still retain the power of making use of the surplus of one vote to meet any deficiency in another, provided the aggregate grant for naval or military services is not exceeded. This power, as we have already stated, is exercised with the knowledge and consent of the Treasury.

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In 1851, by the Act 14 & 15 Vict. c. 42, the appro- Further priation audit was directed to be applied to the newly- of the created departments of the Board of Woods and the appropria Board of Public Works.

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In 1856, the Committee on Public Moneys was appointed. They sat for two sessions; and their report, in 1857, has formed the text of all that has been subsequently said or written on the subject of the appropriation audit.' They recommended that it should be applied to the accounts of income and expenditure kept at the Treasury, to the accounts of the revenue departments, and to the various accounts comprising the expenditure of the votes for civil services, including civil contingencies.' Lord Palmerston's government, by a Treasury minute dated February 15, 1858, and Lord Derby's government, by a minute of December 23, 1858, each agreed to the principle of this recommendation, but pointed out certain practical difficulties in the way of its immediate adoption.

In 1860, by the Act 24 & 25 Vict. c. 93, the appropriation audit was extended to the expenditure of the customs, the inland revenue, and the post-office departments; and in 1861 (pursuant to the report of the Committee on Public Accounts of that year), to payments out of the civil contingencies fund. It only remained that it should be applied to the miscellaneous civil service expenditure; an undertaking which, after having been repeatedly urged upon the government by the Committee on Public Accounts, was at length accomplished in 1866, by the Exchequer and Audit Departments Act, 29 & 30 Vict. c. 39.

This Act repeats all previous enactments in reference to the appropriation audit, and provides for its ultimate

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Report, p. 6. Com. Pap. 1857, v. 9., 2nd Sess.

Com. Pap. 1857-8, v. 34, p. 382; Ib. 1860, v. 39, pt. 1, p. 175.

See Report of 1862, p. iii. and App. p. 2; Report of 1864, App. Nos. 3 and 4.

tion audit.

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