CO129-605-1 Annual Accounts- 1946-7 9-9-1948 - 14-3-1949 — Page 41

Page 9.

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the receipts accruing from this source, nor is it possible to state that there has been no loss in respect of any particular transaction. The apparent delegation of authority to the Head of the Marketing Section to fix prices, was also considered by this Department as providing an unsatisfactory control over Revenue.

41. Losses of Revenue. A list of the amounts of revenue written A reported to the

off during the period under review as irrecoverable forms Annexure Auoit Department, II to this report.

ARREARS OF REVENUE

42. Requests by this Department for the submission of returns of Arrears of Revenue as at the 31st March, 1947, in accordance with Colonial Regulation 239 were not successful. The Accountant General reported in February, 1948, that while a good deal of information as to arrears could be obtained from the Treasury records, it had not been found possible to obtain all the desired information and that in view of the conditions which obtained during the period under review, no useful purpose would be served by attempting to try and complete such a return for 1946/47 at the above date. Steps are, however, now being taken for regular returns to be furnished, commencing with the period ending the 31st March, 1948.

AUTHORITIES FOR EXPENDITURE, 1946/47

43.

Details of the various authorities covering the expenditure for this financial year are given in Annexure III to this report.

period.

44. Estimates. No formal sanction of the approval of the Estimates by the Secretary of State has been seen by this Department. Inform- ation was received from the Financial Secretary that "Notification has however been received that the Appropriation Ordinance for 1946/47 will not be disallowed (vide Secretary of State's despatch No.229 of 12th November, 1946), which presumably constitutes indirect approval of the Estimates".

45. A large number of items of expenditure in excess of, or in addition to, the provision in the approved estimates for the period ending the 31st March, 1947, were included in the "Omnibus" Special Warrant (S.W. No.161), which was signed by the Governor on the 14th July, 1948. The total of these items exceeds $6,500,000 and it clear that the approved expenditure in the Estimates was exceeded in many instances during the financial period 1946/47 without prior approval being obtained. In a recently issued circular the Colonial Secretary has drawn the attention of Heads of Departments to the fact that in no case may any subhead be overspent without prior approval, even if savings can be shown elsewhere, and to the requirements of Colonial Regulations Nos. 244 and 269.

46. It appears from information supplied by the Acting Accountant General that Special Warrant No.142 was not submitted to the Governor for signature and that reference to that Special Warrant in the Detailed Statement of Expenditure for the eleven months ended 31st March, 1947, should be deleted. The amounts of the Supplementary votes in the Statement under Head 18, Subhead 1 and Subhead 3, should be shown as $1,674,073 and $535,295 respectively instead of $3,174,073 and $985,295 respectively, and the "carried forward" totals from page 55 onwards, and the final total on page 109 of the Detailed Statement of Expenditure for the eleven months ended the 31st March, 1947, are similarly affected.