CO885-(11-12) — Page 403

FELIC

RECORD

OFFICE

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سائسس

Reference -

C.O.882/12

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- | COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NO1 TO!

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been made, after the special demands of the period of reorganiza- tion had been met, that a special fund would not have been required.

We are in entire sympathy with the desire of the Colonial Government to send its officers from time to time on special course- of training and to be less dependent on Great Britain or the Dominions when specialist appointments have to be made. We prefer, however, that the need for such training should be declared in advance, as the Secretary of State stipulated, and we believe that when such a case arises it would be better to make specific provision for it in the budget. We consider that in the present financial position it is not desirable to leave open a general invita- tion to private students to apply for grants from public revenue to enable them to carry out courses of study. Grants of this nature should be confined to officers who have shown promise in the public service, and who would if they had special training be appointed to a particular post which is due or likely to become vacant at an early date.

We recommend therefore that the Government Scholarship Fund should be closed and should be used for increasing the fluid resources of the Colony.

4. It is not necessary in present circumstances to refer at any length to the practice of charging works to "surplus balances and of showing the charges in lump sums without detail; in other words, of treating the surplus balances as a Fund. This system has been followed in the case of the expenditure on the Granary, and is open to strong objection. Any further expenditure on the Granary should be shown in full detail in the budget, either under Head 29 or, if the expenditure is incurred by the Electrical Branch. in the estimates of that branch, a footnote being used to refer this expenditure to the Granary. Their disappearance makes the question of surplus balances of little immediate importance, but when a surplus is again obtained it should be used not as a "fund" but as a reserve.

5. We have from time to time referred to expenditure incurred by one department for another. We think it a point of some importance that such expenditure should never be treated as revenue so as to inflate the revenue figures. Ordinarily in the case of pur- chases from Government institutions such as the Dairy, Bakery, or Laundry, the amount of the purchase should be shown as expen- diture of the purchasing department, and should be deducted from the total expenditure of the producing branch. The cases of the Railway and Electrical Branch call for different treatment. The entries in different departments of payments for "services rendered by the railways" should continue to be made; but a correspond- ing total entry should be made in the railway revenue figures, "less receipts for services rendered to other departments." The

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expenditure of the Electrical Branch cannot be distinctly assigned to the different departments for which the branch works, but can only be allocated by somewhat theoretical costing it is therefore necessary to show the whole expenditure in the estimates of the branch, and by a footnote to indicate the cost which could be charged to the principal departments concerned.

We may include at this point our recommendation that it should no longer be the practice to include in the estimates of the Secre- tariat the whole clerical service. It follows from our scheme for that service that the cost of clerks should always be shown in the estimates of the departments in which they are severally employed.

6. The effect of these recommendations will be to eliminate Appendices V, VI, VIII, IX and X of the Colonial budget and to transfer to the Colonial budget the railway estimates and the railway Appendix which at present contains the estimates of the Electrical Branch. Appendix VII, Works to be carried out from Loan Funds, will remain, in view of paragraph 236 of the Colonial Regulations. It is not however correct, according to our reading of that paragraph, to charge the loan with the cost of one of the clerks who is doing ordinary financial work in the Public Works Department (another is charged to the Development Fund), or with the maintenance of the completed works. The latter item amounts to Rs.60,000 of which no details are given, while drainage- work staff costing Rs.7,600 is shown in Head 26, Public Works. This is defective procedure: recurring expenditure on permanent staff and on maintaining completed works should be shown in full detail under Head 26.

7. It is not enough to prescribe that the budget should be pre- pared in a form which in no way conceals the liabilities which the Colony is likely to incur in the budget year: it is also necessary that it should be prepared and passed in accordance with a time- table from which no departure should be allowed. Nothing could more clearly show a disregard of the necessity for financial control than the practice in Mauritius of passing the budget in the Council of Government long after the beginning of the financial year to which the budget relates. It has not only been after a hurricane that these delays have occurred.

We recommend that strict attention should be given to the Secretariat circulars of 24th November, 1930, and 15th January, 1931, requiring Heads of departments to submit their estimates of expenditure by 31st January, and of revenue by 1st March, in each year. Failure to do so should be regarded as dereliction of duty by the Head of the department. It is hardly necessary for us to add that works for which detailed estimates have not been com- pleted by 31st January should not be admitted into the budget for the financial year: such a course is clearly prejudicial to Treasury control.

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