§ MR. CHARLES HOBHOUSE (Bristol, E.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether any part of the audit of accounts of the military expenditure in South Africa is done locally; and, if so, can he say to what accounts this local audit extends.
LORD STANLEYYes, Sir. The Pay Department in South Africa, as elsewhere, is responsible for the audit of all cash accounts, a certain proportion being subject to a test audit at the War Office with a view of securing that the local audit has been properly performed.
§ MR. CHARLES HOBHOUSEIs it the intention of the Government—or rather is it its practice at the present moment—to decentralise the audit, and not to bring the accounts home from Natal to the War Office for audit?