37
LOWE, BINGHAM & MATTHEWS, HONG KONG
3 -
DISTRIBUTION CENTRE,
(Army Rations)
Cr. $18,319.36
Since it was believed that this item had arisen
in respect of the sale of Army Rations, and as it was con-
firmed that no Civil Administration stocks were involved,
the balance was dealt with in the 1949/50 Accounts as a
realisation of B.M.A. stocks.
In the Consolidated Balance Sheet (Schedule No.
I) prepared for the Department as a whole, the three last
mentioned sections have consequently been omitted; the
transactions which were recorded through their respective
Treasury Suspense Accounts were relatively small.
ACCOUNTING SYSTEM OF THE DEPARTMENT
The records generally were in an unsatisfactory
and incomplete state. It was explained that this was due
to the difficulties arising from the receipt of the large
quantities of stores without documents and an inability
to employ sufficient and suitable staff.
In accordance with General Orders of Government
the Director of Audit endeavoured to conduct a partial
audit of the books but this was later abandoned.
The Director of Audit has informed us that he
reported in accordance with General Order No. 393 and he
ultimately found it necessary to consolidate his criticisms
in his report under date 15th July, 1948, to the Director
General of Colonial Audit, which report has already been
published and considered by the Secretary of State, and
should be read in conjunction with our observations on the
appended accounts. In these circumstances we have not
felt that we were required to call attention to short-
comings already referred to by the Director of Audit, but
have confined ourselves mainly to observations affecting