Public Service lacks accountants—M.P.

Press, 2 July 1983, Page 9

Public Service lacks accountants—M.P.

PA Wellington No large public company would dare work with so few acountants as did major Government departments, a backbench National member of Parliament said yesterday. Mr lan McLean, member for Tarawera and chairman of Parliament’s Public Expenditure Committee, said the lack of accounting skills meant that sometimes it had not been possible to find whether objectives were being met. In an address to a Society of Accountants’ convention in Wellington yesterday, Mr McLean said that when the review of performance of departments was mainly directed towards control of

cash expenditure, the need was primarily for bookkeepers rather than accountants. “Unfortunately this led to accountants within the Public Service being treated as bookkeepers rather than highly skilled professionals, and has resulted in both frustration and the loss of many talented individuals. “No large public company would dare to work with such a slender professional accounting input as do the major Government departments,” he said. The limited input of accounting skills had, in its turn, limited the effectiveness of the review of performance. “When the shortage of accountants has led to in-

adequate management information systems it has simply not been possible to evaluate whether objectives are not being met. “Some departments have recognised the problem and have been able to strengthen greatly their accounting resources, but unfortunately, others have hardly as yet started.” However, Mr McLean said he thought the review of performance of Government departments was much more effective than the review of the performance of the managers of public companies. The Audit Office reported to Parliament and the public on major problems much more directly than the auditors of public companies.