§ MR. ARTHUR O'CONNOR (Donegal, E.)asked the Surveyor General of the Ordnance, Whether the balances shown in the Army Manufacturing Accounts are any better than paper balances; and, whether these paper balances are ever checked against actual balances by any auditor or stock-taker, independent of the War Office itself?
§ THE SURVEYOR GENERAL (Mr. NORTHCOTE) (Exeter)The balances shown in the Army Manufacturing Accounts are actual balances, and represent Government property actually held by the several Departments. Stock is frequently taken, independently of the Departments concerned, by the accountant and auditor who represent the War Office. There is no audit whatever applied to the accounts and balances in question by any other Department than the War Office; but the question of introducing an audit altogether independent of the War Office is now under consideration.