CO129-548-1 Annual reports from various government departments 3-4-1934 - 11-6-1935 — Page 9

really, in principle, equivalent to a

9

system of deferred payment in the Treasury.

(a) Another possible way in which the difficulty

could be met would be for the Treasurer to

journalise all bills due and fully authorised

for payment at the end of the year as a charge

to the Expenditure votes and a credit to

Suspense Account. A period of grace (say a

month) could be allowed for payments to be

effected (debit Suspense Account, credit Cash)

and at the close of the period of grace all

unpaid bills would be journalised back by a

debit to Suspense and a credit to the Expendi-

ture Votes, thus clearing the Suspense Account

and leaving the Expenditure Votes charged with

the actual payments made; all before the

accounts for the year were closed.

This way

involves the introduction of commercial methods

under special circumstances, and it departs

from the strict rule of date of payment as

laid down in Col. Reg. 288.

4. The point, that should, I think, be

fully realised before a final decision is taken is

that as stated in paragraph 2 above, the organisation

of Colonial accounting is such that the strict Home

practice cannot be complied with entirely for

departmental payments, unless the Secretary of State

the is prepared to enforce a big upheaval of/accounting

arrangements in most of the Colonies; and that,

if he is not prepared to insist on strict orthodoxy

in the case of Departmental payments, the question

naturally arises whether a similar relaxation of the

strict rule should not logically be admitted in

certain