11.
48
Item 6.
safeguard. D.0.S. was not aware that Mr. Jones was over at his Head Office on Tuesday 11th May.
a) D.O.S. happened carelessly to endorse this cheque without examining it. His explanation, which he does not pretend is satisfactory, he has already given in the Secretariat File, which it is understood the Committee have seen.
N.B.
If the Department had had a bank account, there would have been no chance of Mr. Wake- field's signing without examination. As pointed out in V B (i) above, the Accountant General and D.O.N.T. are responsible herefor a serious weakness in the system.
b) Clerk i/c Accounts failed to report failure of Chung
II to return with the cash see 4 and 5 above.
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c) D.0. Yuen Long. It is clear (see (4) in file "D.O.N.T.
Accounts) available in D.O.N.T. 's safe) that D.O. Yuen Long, in making his arrangements for the payment of this second instalment of Pingshan Compensation money, provided that the sum concerned, this $20,040.24, should lie in D.O.N.T.'s safe the night previous to payment at Pingshan, and should be taken out to Pingshan by the normal party (Clerk i/c) Accounts Chung II, and armed District Watchman).
when
The first instalment, about $44,000, was taken to
In this Pingshan Land Office for payment on 13.1.48. case, D.O.N.T. was alive to the financial importance of the transaction, and had discussed the whole pro- cedure with D.0. Yuen Long in D.0.N.T.'s office, chiefly with a view to security of the cash, D.0. ruled without hesitation that the cash was not to be locked in Head Office safe overnight. On D.O. Yuen Long's representation that many hours would be required at Pingshan to pay out this money, so that it was urgently necessary for the money to reach Pingshan promptly in the morning, D ̧0.N.T. agreed to the drawing of the money by Shroff and Emergency Unit Constable from the bank on the previous day, and its lodgement in the Water Police that night (receipt for the money being obtained), and to D.0. Yuen Long himself, properly escorted, taking the money to Pinshan next day.
In view of this, it is not understood in the present case why D.0. Yuen Long
(i) did not make arrangements to follow the same
procedure in the case of the present $20,040.24 and, in particular,
(ii) was prepared to tolerate, without further
conference with D.O.N. T., the locking of so large a sum in the safe overnight, and
(iii) was prepared to tolerate the passage of so
large a sum from Head Office to Pingshan Land Office under armed escort of one District Watch- man only.
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