Page:1902 Encyclopædia Britannica - Volume 25 - A-AUS.pdf/97

 EMPIRE

ADMIRALTY

ADMINISTRATION

has undergone many changes, and the resulting condition is the outcome of various modifications which have had for their purpose to give to this officer a measure of financial control. There have been various views as to what the duties of the accountant-general should be. After the reorganization of the Admiralty by Sir Janies Graham in 1832, the accountant-general was regarded as a recording and accounting officer, wholly concerned with receipt and expenditure. His duties were limited to the auditing of accounts, payments, and expenditure generally. Owing to changes effected in 1869, which made the parliamentary secretary, assisted by the Civil Lord, responsible for finance at the Admiralty, bringing the naval and victualling store departments into his charge, the accountant - general was invested with the power of criticizing these accounts financially, though he did not as yet possess any financial control, and the position was little changed by fresh rules made in 1876. It was not until 1880 that the powers of the accountant-general were enlarged in this direction. It was then ordered that he should be consulted before any expenditure which the estimates had not provided for was incurred, and before any money voted was applied to other purposes than those for which it was provided. The effect of this order was not happy, for the accountant-general could not undertake these duties without setting up friction with the departments whose accounts he criticized. It was contemplated by the Admiralty in 1885 to make the accountant-general the assistant of the financial secretary, and to raise him to the position of a permanent officer of finance instead of being an officer of account invested with imperfect authority in the direction of control. A select committee of the House of Commons reported that the accountant - general possessed no financial control over the departments, and that there was an urgent need for establishing such a control. At the time the position of that officer did not enable him to exercise any sufficient general supervision over expenditure, and there was no permanent high official expressly charged with finance. Accordingly, after being submitted to a departmental committee, a fresh arrangement was made in November 1885, whereby the accountant-general, under the authority of the financial secretary, was given a direct share in the preparation of the estimates. His written concurrence was required before the final approval of the votes, and each vote was referred to him for his approval or observations, and he was to exercise a financial review of expenditure and to see that it was properly accounted for. He became, in fact, “ the officer to be consulted on all matters involving an expenditure of naval funds.” It was believed that economical administration would result; but much opposition was raised to the principle that was involved of submitting the proposals of responsible departments to the inexpert criticism of a financial authority. Mr Main, assistant accountant-general, stated before the Royal Commission on Civil Establishments, 1887, that the effect had been to develop a tendency to withhold information or to afford only partial information, as well as to cause friction when questions were raised affecting expenditure, accompanied by protests, even in those cases in which these questions were manifestly of a legitimate character. The result was discouraging, and in the opinion of Mr Main had done much to weaken financial control and to defeat the purpose of the order. It is unnecessary to detail the various changes that have been made by the institution of dockyard expense accounts in the department of the Controller, and by various other alterations introduced. The Treasury instituted an independent audit of store accounts which greatly affected the position of the accountant-general, and the Royal Com-

77

mission on Civil Establishments reported that the Board of Admiralty were of opinion that they could dispense with the accountant - general’s review altogether. The commission was, however, of opinion that the accountantgeneral should be the permanent assistant and adviser, on all matters involving the outlay of public money, of the financial secretary. The operations of the accountant - general are now conducted in accordance with the Order - in - Council of 18th November 1885, and of an office memorandum issued shortly afterwards. He thus acts as deputy and assistant of the parliamentary and financial secretary, and works with a finance committee within the Admiralty, of which the financial secretary is president and the accountantgeneral himself vice-president. The duties of the department are precisely defined as consisting in the criticism of the annual estimates as to their sufficiency before they are passed, and in advising the financial and parliamentary secretary as to their satisfying the ordinary conditions of economy. The accountant - general also reviews the progress of liabilities and expenditure, and in relation to dockyard expenditure he considers the proposed programme of construction as it affects labour, material, and machinery. He further reviews current expenditure, or the employment of labour and material, as distinguished from cash payments of the yard, as well as proposals for the spending of money on new work or repairs of any kind for which estimates are currently proposed. The accountant - general’s department has three principal divisions : the estimates division, the navy pay division, and the invoices and claims division. In the first of these is the ledger branch, occupied with the work of accounts under the several votes and sub-heads of votes, and with preparing the navy appropriation account, as well as the estimates and liabilities branch, in which the navy estimates are largely prepared after having been proposed and worked out in the executive departments of the Admiralty. There are also ships’ establishments and salaries branches. The navy pay division includes the full and half-pay branch and a registry section. There is also the seamen’s pay branch, which audits ships’ ledgers and wages, and has charge of all matters concerning the wages of seamen. The victualling audit is also in this branch, and is concerned with payments for savings in lieu of victualling and some other matters. Further, the navy pay division examines ships’ ledgers, and is concerned with the service, characters, ages, &c., of men as well as with allotments and pensions. The third division of the accountantgeneral’s department, known as that of invoices and claims, conducts a vast amount of clerical work through many branches, and is concerned with the management of Naval Savings Banks and matters touching prize-money and bounties. The importance of this great department of the Admiralty cannot be overrated. It is, in the first place, of supreme importance that the navy estimates should be placed upon a sound financial basis ; and in practice the board requires the concurrence of the accountant-general to the votes before they are approved, and thus in greater or less degree this officer is concerned in the preparation of every one of the votes. He does not concern himself with matters of larger policy outside the domain of finance, and it must be confessed that there appears to be something anomalous in his “ review ” of naval expenditure. It is, however, a mark of the flexibility or elasticity of the Admiralty system that in practice the operations of the accountant-general’s department work easily, and that Admiralty finance is recognized as having been placed upon a sound and efficient basis. There are important financial officers outside the accountant-general’s department concerned with assisting