or their
exercise and in the fourth case, to a valuation error. The Commissioner has also informed me that the control procedures for monitoring interim work which were temporarily suspended during the 1984-85 revaluation exercise have now been restored and that departmental standing technical instructions require the Principal Value deputies, to carry out half-yearly checks on interim control sheets to ensure that no oversight occurs. He has also agreed to my suggestion that circulars should be issued to remind the staff concerned of the need to process interim valuations of new buildings expeditiously and has stated that he will request his valuers to check for loopholes in the existing procedures.
23. Head 5 - Fines, Forfeitures and Penalties. Subheads 030 and 040). Fixed penalty system (Traffic Contraventions and Criminal Proceedings). The arrears as at 31 March 1985 which still remained outstanding at 30 June 1985 including the associated court costs stood at $93 million. The figure of $93 million involved 532 000 outstanding debts of which $60 million related to the period prior to April 1984.
24. Although the arrears of $93 million as at 30 June 1985 represented an increase over the previous year, part of the increase stemmed from the additional penalty and higher court costs imposed under amending legislation introduced in April 1984 upon offenders who had not paid and had not disputed the penalty within the prescribed period. The collection rate of fixed penalties imposed in the financial year 1984–85 showed an improvement over the previous year and there was a significant reduction in the number of cases referred to the Courts. This trend indicated that the amending legislation introduced in April 1984 was having its intended effect. Difficulties are still being experienced in collecting the arrears which accumulated prior to the introduction of the amending legislation and it is likely that a high proportion of the $60 million outstanding in this respect as at 30 June 1985 will eventually have to be written off.
25. Heads 7,8 and 11 – Revenue from Properties and Investments, Land Transactions and Fees and Charges (Director of Lands). In their Sixth Report issued in December 1983 the Public Accounts Committee stated that they were deeply disturbed that errors, omissions and oversights of magnitude in the assessment and collection of revenue relating to land transactions, involving the potential or actual loss of many millions of dollars, continued to be brought up in audit in spite of the Committee's strictures on the subject over the previous five years. The Committee went on to recommend that the Director of Accounting Services should carry out a full-scale review of the procedures relating to the assessment and collection of revenue from properties and investments, land transactions and connected fees and charges, for which the Director of Lands is responsible, with a view to establishing a sound system of internal control and to issuing a manual of guidance for officers concerned with each step of the procedures.
26.
In their follow up evidence to the Public Accounts Committee at the Committee's hearing held in November 1984, the Director of Lands and the Director of Accounting Services gave a full account of the progress which had been made on the Public Accounts Committee's recommendations, as recorded in the Seventh Report of the Committee. The Public Accounts Committee noted in their Seventh Report what had been achieved up to October 1984 and expressed the wish that they be kept informed of the progress in completing and implementing all the necessary reviews relating to both collection and assessment procedures. The Administration has subsequently supplied the Committee with periodic reports on the further progress which has since been made. A summary of the position to date is set out below for ease of reference.
27. A review team to review the revenue collection procedures was established within the Lands Department in January 1984 with the following terms of reference:
-to carry out a critical review of the existing revenue system and procedures in the Lands Department;
-to make recommendations for the establishment of a reliable system and set of procedures for the collecting and prompt accounting of revenue owed to the Government under existing land policies. The recommendations should place the main emphasis on reliability but subject to this due regard should be paid to efficiency and economy in the use of resources; and
-to prepare action plans for the implementation of the recommendations.
The review team made its report in June 1984. The report contained a number of important detailed recommendations to eliminate inherent weaknesses, to improve the procedures and to increase the efficiency of the revenue collection system, and identified several areas requiring further study.
28. Substantial progress has been made in the implementation of the three main recommendations of the review team, namely the setting up of a uniform review system, the overhaul of the file movement system and the mechanization of demand note preparation procedures. New review registers and review pages have been introduced for all new files and for old cases which have come up for review but the complete checking of existing files will not be completed until the filing system in all the District Lands Offices has been overhauled. Eight clerical officers are engaged in the overhaul of the file movement system and the exercise has been completed in two District Lands Offices. Mechanization of demand note preparation procedures has been completed for the Lands Department Headquarters and a pilot implementation of the system for District Lands Offices has been carried out in one District Lands Office. Good progress has also been made on the other recommendations of the review team. In particular, the exercise to introduce a check list in each case file has been completed and a draft manual of guidance for officers concerned with each step of the procedures relating to revenue collection (and expenditure control) has been issued to interested parties for comments.
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