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84
Q.
A. I don't think so.
Have you issued any audit queries on the Immigration Department?
A.
Not on the revenue side
w
that is where my difficulty arose. I
Q.
A.
doubt very much whether any queries have been raised on the expenditure side as the department has not been open long enough.
Have you in fact had any complaint on the expenditure side?
As yet no.
Mr. Drummond.
Q. Do I understand that the passport section which was previously run by the Police was taken over in toto by the Immigration Department? Yes, that is so.
A.
Q.
A.
Chairman. Have their accounts been auditable?
Two years ago there was trouble in the Passport Department while under the Police; we instituted what I thought was a proper system and it has been carried out. There has been no difficulty since. Q. That was audited and correct up to the end of 1940?
A. Yes.
A.
Q.
MR. FORREST:
Mr. Pudney, you have said that an audit wee is impossible, or was impossible at the date when you visited the departmantg that it would have been impossible unless you had stopped the whole department from functioning and had made a complete investigation of the whole of the accounts from the word 'gê'. It should be possible having regard to the fact that the main item of revenue collected consists of Immigration permits and certificates which are audit numbered and sold at a fixed price? It should be possible to determine at any moment whether revenue had been fully collected and had been fully turned into the Treasury?
Provided we knew what receipts had been received in the first instance.
Assuming that we have taken delivery of a certain number of permit forms and that there remain in our hands a certain less number, it is possible for you to determine what revenue should have been received and from the Treasury receipts to determine whether that