§ MR. KING (Hull, Central)asked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether the attention of the Secretary of State has been drawn to the discrepancies pointed out in The Economist of April 21, which occurred in the original Estimate, the revised Estimates, and the actual financial results of Indian finance for the year 1886–7, in the last case amounting to an increase of over £500,000 in the receipts and over 740 £1,000,000 in expenditure, and what explanation has been offered by the Indian Government of the reasons for these discrepancies; whether he will state how it is possible that such discrepancies can occur, and whether it is due to a bad system of accounts; what control in the way of audit the India Office has over the accounts of the Indian Government; whether there is any independent audit on behalf of the Secretary of State of accounts in India, or whether those accounts are forwarded to England to be audited and controlled by auditors appointed by the Secretary of State; whether the Government Accounts in India are audited by officials of the Indian Government, and not by an independent auditor appointed and controlled by the Secretary of State; and, whether he will lay upon the Table copies of documents and regulations which shall exhibit the system in vogue for estimating, auditing, and accounting for the Revenue and Expenditure of the Indian Government?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE (Sir JOHN GORST) (Chatham)The writer in The Economist is mistaken. He overlooked my statement that if there was a surplus the cost of special defence works would be charged against it, and he forgot to take into account the effect of the allotments to Provincial Governments. The true discrepancy between my statement and the final account was R.X.155,800 in Revenue and R.X.293,800 in Expenditure. The reason for any discrepancy at all is the difficulty of collecting and winding up accounts over so wide an area—a task which it takes nine months to accomplish. The India Office has never attempted to audit the accounts of the Government of India in this country; but the possibility of establishing such an audit has been for some time, and at the present moment is, under the consideration of the Secretary of State. The accounts of the Indian Government are audited by officials of that Government in India. The desired information as to the system will be found in the Report of the Committee on Military Accounts and Estimates, No. 86 of 1881.