12
payment governs the date of the record of the
charge in the accounts is absolute.
(b) The present practice in Hong Kong,
which the Auditor criticises and which
gave rise to the present discussion, viz:
the completion of the act of payment
(or completion save final signature of
+
the Accountant) except for the issue of
the cheques which were held in the safe
pending issue.
This method is contrary alike to Home
and Colonial rules because in both cases
the date of payment when made by cheque should be the date of issue of the signed
cheque; though, so far as I know, there
has never been an authoritative ruling on
this point by the Secretary of State for the
Colonies.
(c) A possible way out of the difficulty,
which has not been suggested by Hong
Kong, and which I do not recommend,
would be for the Treasurer to nominate a Paying Agent (possibly a Head of Depart- ment) for bills due for payment by the
Treasury but not paid at the end of the
year. This Paying Agent would then be
in a similar position to the Heads of Departments as described in paragraph 2 above, and it would be quite regular for the Treasurer to issue the money for payment of these bills to the Paying Agent under the new G.0. 276 A. I mention this
to demonstrate how the Colonial practice
for departments quoted in paragraph 2 is
really,