Secretariat file 1/233/3841/46.
CONFIDENTIAL.
No. 230.
54126/7/48
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
HONG KONG.
22nd September, 1948.
16
Enclosure 1
+(1).
Sir,
I have the honour to refer to my savingram 364 of 22nd May reporting the loss of not less than $34,000 in cash by the District Officer, New Territories.
2.
A committee was appointed to enquire into the circumstances of the loss and its report is attached as enclosure 1. The committee found that:-
(a)
On the post-war amalgation of the two former departments into a single Central District Office New Territories no consideration appeared to have been given to a correspond- ing reorganisation of the accounting system of the new department.
(b) The department's accounts books had not been checked by
the Treasury since the re-occupation of the Colony.
(c)
(a)
(e)
(f)
After September 1947 no check of the department's accounts was carried out either by a senior officer or the officer in charge of accounts.
The officer in charge of accounts failed in the discharge of his responsibilities by omitting to report the insub- ordination of a shroff in refusing to allow him to inspect the shroff's books.
The responsibilities of the officer in charge of accounts were not clearly defined.
An unsatisfactory practice existed whereby the head office shroff acknowledged the receipt of money from out-station shroffs merely by initialling cash books.
(g) The shroff at Un Long failed to report that the head office shroff had not rendered a Treasury receipt for $3,233.45 on the 6th May. An immediate enquiry into this matter might have prevented the defalcation on a larger scale.
(h)
(i)
(j)
(k)
The District Officer South failed to notice the amounts in which the cheques, endorsed by him on the 11th May, were drawn.
There were two keys to the safe at the head office contrary to General Orders.
It was difficult for the District Officer to carry out his duties effectively and to make a daily check of his accounts at the same time.
The wide geographical separation of the three revenue- collecting offices in the New Territories made the problem of safe carriage of large sums of money difficult to solve.
/The committee
د كدة
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
A. CREECH JONES, M.P.
2