-
14
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178
of Mr.
It will be observed that the various statement a
Chatham are not consistent.
At the period the accounts ceased to be kept in the recognized manner, at the end of January 1909, there were two officers specially trained as Quantity Surveyors on the staff of the Public Works Department, another officer of similar training was appointed early in the year 1910, any or all of whom were available, yet not one of these three officers with their special training for such work was made use of after the end of the year 1908, and no consideration was obviously given to the important matter of accounts for works of magnitude by Mr. Chatham.
I beg to submit, as a professional man, in the in- terests of Public Service, that such methods as adopted by Mr. Chatham are a serious breach of Departmental orders relating to the keeping of accounts, and they have caused great confusion and inconvenience.
18.
The following will shew the result of Mr. Chatham's methods of keeping accounts in relation to the votes re- quired for the Estimates year by year.
With reference to the estimated expenditure for the work under review, Kr, Chatham in C.8.0. No. 2795/1902 minute, dated 8. 12. 11., stated that "he could not obtain a satisfactory statement and that he had prepared one him- self; which he submitted to the Government of Hongkong. The want of a satisfactory statement was the direct result of his own precedure, though it would appear from his minute that the blame was mine.
Yet I had as a matter of fact supplied the infor- mation required as far back as the 4th September, 1910, and the 22nd September, 1911, and I was subsequently asked by
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