FINANCIAL CONTROL

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 141, 11 December 1929, Page 14

FINANCIAL CONTROL

UNDERMINING A PRINCIPLE"

STATEMENT BY PRIME

MINISTER

"The right honourable the Leader of the Opposition," said tho Prime Minister (Sir Joseph Ward) to-day, "is reported in the Press as having made the following statement in tho course of his remarks at Eastbourne last night:

'The United.Party have taken definite steps to undermine what should be a clearly laid down principle. They have altered, or rather propose to alter, tho system so as to allow a Minister to have- a greater amount of money at his disposal. They are altering a definite, carefully designed, and what I believe to be an honest scheme, for the allocation of public money. It is not right, and will work out to the detriment of the people of New Zealand.'

"I am at a loss to understand what the right honourable gentleman had in his mind in making this statemcut, but far from taking any action in the direction indicated by this statement, tho Government has been active iv tightening up and making more effective tho control of Parliament over the expenditure of public moneys.

"For instance, prompt steps were taken to institute a better control of expenditure on public works. To enable members of Parliament to see the position of works under construction, the form of the estimates was amended to show, in respect of each undertaking, the original estimated cost of the work, the amount spent to date, and the estimated amount required to complete the work. Furher, in order that the various proposals might be subject to expert review from the financial aspect, arrangements were made for Public Works Estimates to be submitted to the Treasury for investigation before being finalised for submission to the House.

"In addition, it was found that permanont appropriations existed for expenditure of loan moneys on railway improvement, swamp drainage, school buildings, and certain other works. That is to say, the expenditure on these works was not subject to annual review by Parliament. This matter was remedied last session by a section in the Finance Act, and in future such expenditure will be- subject to annual appropriation by Parliament.

"Another matter that was attended to was an overhaul of the borrowing authorities. I found that authorities amounting in the aggregate to about £8,000,000 still existed for such purposes as war, settlement of discharged soldiers, naval defence, where no further loan moneys were required. All these" unnecessary authorities were cancelled by a section in the Finance Act.

"As a matter of fact, the Government has endeavoured in every way to improve and strengthen the control over the expenditure of public moneys, and the statement which is reported to have been made by the right honourable the Leader of the Opposition is absolutely contrary to fact."