Memorandum by the Accountant.
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Paragraph 22 of Auditor's report is somewhat bald
the Board of Survey did not so much find quantities of cheques
complete and incomplete as have them brought to their notice by
Treasury officials, who need not have disclosed the existence of
such cheques.
The completely signed cheques were in the custody of
the Accountant and the First Shroff, awaiting collection by the
payees, many of whom were actually waiting while the Board of
Survey performed its task, as obviously all work at the paying
counter had to be suspended during the survey.
For reasons which will be explained later, all payments
are made personally at the Treasury and no cheques are sent out to
payees either by mail or messenger.
The incompletely signed cheques lacked the Accountant's
signature which was withheld in the following circumstances.
Many of the vouchers supporting the cheques were received in the Treasury on the last working day of the year
allowing just sufficient time to draw cheques and pass the
requisite entries in the books. C.R. 275 requiring the certificate
of the head of department had been satisfied and the Treasurer be-
fore signing the cheques had complied with C.R. 279. These
vouchers were, therefore, ripe for payment in accordance with the
Regulations. Local experience has, however, convinced Treasury
officials that a rather stricter examination of accounts than that
demanded by C.R. 279 is necessary and it has been for many years an
invariable rule that contract rates, arithmetical calculations and
every detail contained in the vouchers shall be examined by the
Treasury before payments are made. Following the practice of
several years the cheques in these cases were detached and retained
by the Accountant whose signature was withheld as a further safety