CO129-548-1 Annual reports from various government departments 3-4-1934 - 11-6-1935 — Page 12

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payment governs the date of the record of the

charge in the accounts is absolute.

(b) The present practice in Hong Kong,

which the Auditor criticises and which

gave rise to the present discussion, viz:

the completion of the act of payment

(or completion save final signature of

+

the Accountant) except for the issue of

the cheques which were held in the safe

pending issue.

This method is contrary alike to Home

and Colonial rules because in both cases

the date of payment when made by cheque should be the date of issue of the signed

cheque; though, so far as I know, there

has never been an authoritative ruling on

this point by the Secretary of State for the

Colonies.

(c) A possible way out of the difficulty,

which has not been suggested by Hong

Kong, and which I do not recommend,

would be for the Treasurer to nominate a Paying Agent (possibly a Head of Depart- ment) for bills due for payment by the

Treasury but not paid at the end of the

year. This Paying Agent would then be

in a similar position to the Heads of Departments as described in paragraph 2 above, and it would be quite regular for the Treasurer to issue the money for payment of these bills to the Paying Agent under the new G.0. 276 A. I mention this

to demonstrate how the Colonial practice

for departments quoted in paragraph 2 is

really,