CO129-345 - Public Offices & Foreign Office - 1907 — Page 618

3/12 Railway.

sir,

COPY

AUDIT OFFICE,

C:0. 014 18905

April 193 1907

HONG KONG

28 MAY 07!

I have the honour to inform you that, at the request of H.E. the Governor, I attended a meeting at Government House on Tuesday March 26th for the purpose of discussing the present system of the Kowloon-Canton Railway Accounts, and Audit. There were also present at the said interview, Mr: Eves the Chief Resident Engineer of the Railway, and Mr: Thomson the Colonial Treasurer.

2. The first question under discussion was that of Audit. The Chief Resident Engineer stated that he was not satisfied with the present system of Audit undertaken by me, as I required so much information, and, owing to the Audit being conducted in this office instead of at Kowloon, endless correspondence ensued, which he had not the staff to attend to.

3. My explanation to this was that I had not the time at my disposal to conduct the Audit over at Kowloon, and, for the

same reason, I was not satisfied myself with the Audit, which I considered was not carried out in sufficient detail. I stated

ed that I consider that the Accounts, as furnished in their present condition,were unsatisfactory in that they are furnished in an unexamined condition to this office, there being only one Por-

ant tuguese Chief Account and an assistant in the Railway Accounts office, and no Examining Branch.

4. The Chief Engineer was anxious for a man to be appointed to Audit the Accounts over at Kowloon and be responsible to me.

I pointed out that such an official under my supervision could only be appointed by you, with the Secretary of State's approval, and although I agreed that such an appointment was necessary I did not feel disposed to ask for an Assistant Auditor who, like myself, would be undertaking an Examination which might well be

termed

COMPTROLLER AND AUDITOR GENERAL.