323
-158
trust that in future the Magistrate, Medical Officer and Agricultural Superintendent deputed to Rodrigues will be officers in the early stage of their service. This will reduce the charge for the island, as also will our general recommendations for the reduction of salaries. His Excellency attaches special importance to the agricul- tural station at Rodrigues; but we note that part of the pay of the post of Superintendent is being used to meet the cost of the Tobacco Officer in Mauritius. This temporary adjustment should cease, and the station should be given a permanent Superintendent.
CHAPTER XII.-BUDGET FORM AND PROCEDURE. In the preceding chapters dealing with departmental reorganiza- tion we have made several recommendations for changes in the form of the budget. Budget procedure is a fact of such real importance in the financial control which we regard as the first need of the Colony, that we think it desirable to summarize and complete our recommendations in a separate chapter.
In chapter X we have stated that we attach special importance to bringing railway expenditure under the normal Treasury control exercised by the Colonial Secretary, by making the railway esti- mates no more than an ordinary Head, both as regards revenue and expenditure, of the Colonial budget. We have also recommended that the estimates of the Electrical Branch should become a new Head of the Colonial budget. The main object of the separation of railway accounts, namely, the building up of a depreciation fund outside Treasury control, has failed in fact and might lead to extravagant expenditure. There should be no railway depreciation fund and no electrical depreciation fund, but both departments should budget for capital or maintenance expenditure like other * departments. There should be no distinction of treatment for rail- way or electrical stores, or cash holdings. Both departments should be under normal audit control.
In chapter VII we have recommended that the Agricultural College, Dairy and Stockbreeders Subsidizing Funds should be abolished, and any income and expenditure in connexion with them should be brought in to the budget; we have also recommended that the Government campaign for the capture of phytalus smithii should cease, and that the special tax for that purpose should no longer be collected.
In chapter IX we have recommended that work on the La Nicoliere irrigation scheme should be closed down, and that the advances made for that scheme should be balanced against the surplus of the sewerage loan.
In Chapter X we have recommended that the Granary charges and the estimates for Quay D Apenditure should be shown in full detail. Headings such as salaries, etc." or, in the Medical
159
11
are a
Department, 117, extra assistance, medical and other means of avoiding Treasury control and are absolutely wrong. It is a special duty of audit in accordance with the Colonial Regula- tions to insist on budget items being closely defined; we have no doubt that the Auditor will narrowly scrutinize all the items of contingencies,' sundries,' petty general services," supplies," "incidental expenses,' large to be treated as miscellaneous.
44
"
"
wherever these items are too
In Chapter IV we considered that special anti-malarial expendi- ture such as is now being undertaken should be charged against the estimates of the Medical Department.
2. These recommendations would make large changes in the present arrangement of appendices in the Colonial budget, and, in particular, must have a very definite effect on the Improvement and Development Fund. The anti-malarial charges carried by that fund would be transferred to the medical estimates, as also should be the contributions to the Oeuvre Pasteur, and Child Welfare. The agricultural budget should directly cover the agricultural charges, and the details of the expenditure on minor industries should be clearly shown and should be brought into the Estimates of the Agricultural or Excise Departments as the case may be.
There would remain as expenditure on behalf of the fund only the public works expenditure on new waterworks and on the clinic, and the allowances paid to public works officers for their con- struction. We have recommended that these allowances should not be continued, and we understand that this represents the intention of the Government.
It is not necessary for us to analyse the history of the Improve- ment and Development Fund. This fund has been used for under- taking works of great utility, but also for meeting charges which would have had little chance of inclusion in normal estimates. It has sheltered every possible infraction of financial principle. It has met the cost of salaries and has been a means of increasing them. It has tempted successive Governments to embark on capital expenditure without having any clear idea as to the amount of the recurring charges which the works would involve, or the source from which these charges would be met: we need only instance the harbour improvements, the anti-malarial works, the tarring of the main roads, and the reafforestation schemes. It has extended its demoralizing influence to the Municipality and townships, by providing a source for the doles towards their own extravagant schemes.
We regard the Improvement and Development Fund as one of the chief causes of the present financial position of the Colony. Long after the prosperity which produced the fund has disappeared it has kept before the Government and the public the grandiose illusions of the past. If the surplus funds of the Colony had then been used for the reduction of debt, the Government would have
!
FELIC
RECORD OFFICE
T ། ། ། ། །
بلس
Reference -
C.O.882/12
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC.
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON