The DominioN TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1912. PARLIAMENT AND FINANCE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 157, 15 October 1912, Page 4

The DominioN TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1912. PARLIAMENT AND FINANCE.

An unspectacular and quiet reform inaugurated by the Massey Government was the reference of the Estimates to the Public Accounts Committee for revision and report. By its nature, this reform could not attract much public attention, but we shall be surprised if the new political conditions do not in course of time create a new public opinion favourable to tho growth of a real public interest; in the national finances. In Gjeat Britain, where no party has of late years felt assured of that kind of long ascendency under which public opinion stagnates, they have always been keenly alive to the financial side of government. It was not, however, until very recently that the Government recognised the value of a preliminary scrutiny of the Estimates by a Parliamentary Committee. During the last week of August tho now Select Committee on Estimates presented an interesting report, and many of its conclusions and suggestions and comments are of very great interest. The Committee was endowed with only a slight authority: it does not examine more than one class of Estimates in any year, and it does not report to the House prior to the_ voting of the money. Tho object in setting it up was obviously to secure a series of reports on Departmental methods which in time would constitute an important study of Parliamentary finance. Like most other Parliamentary institutions, it will develop, and its end may be the establishment of a large Budget Committee, whose 'Sub-Committees will revise all the Estimates before the House as a whole considers them. Such a Committeo would do for the Estimates what the Lands Committee, say, does for Land Bills, and would interfere as little with tne proper responsibility of the Government of the day. ■The purse of the nation is to a large extent in the hands of the Departmental officials. Even where a Government, as a Government, abstains from swelling the Estimates for its party purposes, the natural tendency, even with the best of Civil Servicos, is not towards alert economy. The Select Committee referred to declared that even if further supervision by the Treasury, did to some extent weaken tho responsibility of the spending offices, yet more control was necessary. Abundance of waste was discovered. The Committee found, in its examination of the system of buying Government stores —in Britain, as in New Zealand, a most important branch of expenditure—that everything pointed towards the wisdom of open competition by tender. We do not know, and Parliament does.Bot know, the procedure followed in the preparation of the Estimates. But we fancy that in some respects the British example must be followed. The Committee noticed, for example, a striking contrast in many cases between the "original total estimate" and the "revised total estimate." Tho evidence showed that the "original total estimate" was a "provisional • estimate," and it was admitted' that these provisional estimates were "mere guesses, made on insufficient information," and that.tho object of putting them forward was to enable work to begin on new services, which would be held over if time were given for preparing the details and presenting a supplementary estimate. The Hutt railway duplication and the Parliament re-building scheme will immediately occur to New Zealanders as excellent examples of this particular way of wasting tho public funds. It is indeed the rule in this country for Government works to cost vastly more than the original estimate. The British Parliamentary Committee condemns the submission of inaccurate figures to Parliament, and this condemnation is as valid in this country as in Britain.

The Committee cites an interesting example of the value of Treasury control. In the original estimate for the Revenue Buildings vote there was an increase of 11,210, but the Treasury drew attention to the fact that in rocent years the estimate under sub-head K was always largely underspent, the "saving" in 1910-11 being £79,000. There were always excosses under other sub-heads, and it was therefore pretty obvious that the estimate of sub-head K was inflated to bear the excess that was anticipated on the other votes. "We need quote no further from tho report, however. It is curious that no attempt, so far as wo aro aware, has been made in New Zealand, unless we except the innovation _ of the Massey Government, 'to bring Parliament into touch with the financial routine of the Departments. There is abundant room for reform. Reform could not have been looked for, and was not looked for, under the old ret/imc, when the Departments, under Ministerial guidance, becarao Ministerial machines, and when Parliament simply voted away mon-v without knowing why, or being allowed to know why, they arc voting just those amounts. There has been system enough, of coursi, but the system that has been badly required for many years is the system of keeping the general methods of the spending Departments under Parliament's own hand. We shall shortly have the Public Works Estimates; but the House will pass these without knowing much about them. Between now and next session the Government can do nothing moiv .nraci,

tically useful than gi ve ita attention to the development of sonic plan for the thorough revision of all Estimates. Why should not the Public Accounts Committeo bccome a standing committee of inquiry into the machinery of spending, ancl report each session to the House, generally ancl particularly '! Tho Government has made a beginning by referring tho Estimates to tho Committee; it should push the doctrine of Parliamentary control still further.