Sessional_Paper_1949 — Page 81

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Provision of clerical service.

40. The Extra Assistant Financial Secretary while sharing the services of a shorthand writer, and the common registries is without any other clerical assistance. All cases, even on routine matters are considered, decided upon and disposed of by this senior officer. Recommendations are made in chapter XII on how a wider clerical service can be provided and on the functions of the clerks.

Misdirection of files.

41. Files are misdirected to the Financial Branch with a consequent waste of time. This fault should be rectified when clerks specializing on subjects as proposed in Chapter XII are trained in their duties.

42. Volunteer and war pension papers are now first referred to the Extra Assistant Financial Secretary although he can take no other action than forward the papers to the Accountant General who is Chairman of the Pensions Assessment Board.

43. Arrangements should be made to notify officers misdirecting pension and similar cases as to the correct routing of these papers.

Accidents to Government vehicles.

44. The present procedure is for Heads of Departments to complete an accident report form, to suggest the party responsible for the damage and how the cost of repairs should be recovered. After the Electrical and Mechanical Branch of the Public Works Department have inspected the vehicle and estimated the cost of repairs, the case is then forwarded to the Extra Assistant Financial Secretary for him to decide whether the Head of Department's recommendations are to be accepted.

45. It is very rare, if at all, that a decision is given differing from the Head of Department's recommendation. It is now proposed that the Police report of the accident, the accident report form and all relevant papers should be passed to the Electrical and Mechanical Branch at the time they make their first inspection of the vehicle. The Director of Public Works, or an officer on his behalf, should then decide on the party responsible for the damage, and in appropriate cases notify the Accountant General of the decision and the cost of the repairs.

46. The accident report form should be re-designed to include the minuting of all action and to make it unnecessary for any accompanying memos. or minutes.

47. It is recommended that the Motor Accidents Assessment Board which has not functioned for some time, should be abandoned.

48. When the decision of the Director of Public Works, on such cases, differs from that of another Head of Department, the papers should be sent for decision to the Financial Branch who should also be the authority for considering and deciding upon appeals.

Special Warrants.

49. An examination was made of the present procedure for obtaining Supple- mentary Provision and one of the largest Departments in Government was selected for this purpose.

50. The procedure was found to be lengthy and tortuous, with the time of members of Finance Committee being spent on a number of cases requiring their routine approval, and the papers being handled by departmental officers making no useful contribution to the case. A flow chart of the main operations is attached.- Appendix O.

51. Similar procedures in other Colonies have been examined, and it is con- sidered that the method adopted in Nigeria (see Secretariat File 23/2321/47), amended to suit the conditions here, is the one most suitable to be followed. It is recom- mended that the proposed procedure as shown on the flow chart-Appendix P, should be adopted by this Government.