A CHECK-UP ON STATE SPENDING

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 218, 10 June 1943, Page 4

A CHECK-UP ON STATE SPENDING

Very properly, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Holland, has taken up in Parliament the need for the sharpest scrutiny of State expenditure in order that extravagance and waste should be eliminated as far as mav be humanly possib'e. His remarks in this connexion and the Prime Minister’s reply thereto, were perhaps the m l important features of the opening of the Financial Debate on Wcdi cs dav The discerning reader no doubt will have, noted that while tlu criticisms offered b/Mr. Holland were very searching, andsuggestive of existing methods of supervision far from satisfactory. Air. Masers replv was mainlv a refutation in general terms. It is perhaps inevitable, as the Prime Minister himself admitted, that waste and inefficiency should occur in the earlier stages under the stress and urgency of war emergency measures and expenditures initiated on an unprecedented and gigantic scale. But after nearly four years of war, the general routine of administration should have settled well into its stride, with system replacing impromptu “trial and error methods. Furthermore, there should now be less need or argument for maintaining the degree of secrecv which marked the conduct of the war effort generally, and expenditure especially, in the earlier years of the struggle. The Prime Minister has conceded that detai's of expenditure can now be submitted to the Public Accounts Committee. 1 his is so far satisfactory. Immense sums have been raised from the people by loans and taxation for war purposes, but the absence of information has rendered it impossible for competent critics to say whether the money has been spent both wisely and well. The time appears to be opportune for a systematic investigation and overhaul.