§ MR. W. EWARTsaid, he wished to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether there is any general system of audit for the Foreign Office; whether the Accounts are audited every year; when they were last audited; and whether the Auditor is a person of official responsibility, and acting under official authority?
§ MR. LAYARDIn reply to the first 1101 question, there was no general system of audit in the Foreign Office. The diplomatic and consular accounts were somewhat complicated. Only a small portion of the money actually expended went through the Foreign Office, and that was the sum expended upon extraordinaries, such as telegraphic messages, messengers, and special missions, amounting to £30,000 or £35,000 a year. As regarded the members of the Consular Service, they were paid by the Paymaster General from lists made up at the Foreign Office, and with the audit of this department the Foreign Office had nothing to do. The accounts of moneys actually expended by the Foreign Office ought to be audited every year, but they were not generally so, as it was very difficult to get in all the accounts, especially those with reference to foreign missions, whilst the messengers' accounts were often in arrear for nearly a whole year. The whole of the accounts of the Foreign Office were audited up to March last year, but they had not been entirely audited up to the end of the financial period this year, because the messengers' accounts had not been received. All those which could be obtained had been audited. As to the question whether the auditor had any official responsibility, and was under official authority, the auditor was the permanent Under Secretary of State, the accounts were made up by the Chief Clerk and forwarded to the Under Secretary, who audited them and sent them back to the Chief Clerk, who then presented himself before one of the Barons of the Exchequer, and declared that the accounts were just and true. This was a system which had existed for a very long period, at the same time the Foreign Office would be glad if the accounts could be audited by the Audit Office; but the accounts were peculiar, and it would be difficult to suggest a satisfactory mode of audit. The Chief Clerk would be much better able to state whether an account relating to expenditure in foreign countries was right or wrong than any person employed by the Audit Office.