HC Deb 29 June 1903 vol 124 cc797-8
MR. LUNDON (Limerick, E.)

On behalf of the hon. Member for the St. Patrick's Division of Dublin I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether, in view of the fact that all the Irish public accounts are mainly audited in London and a few of them partially for a few weeks in Dublin, he will state what is the cost of the work in London and Dublin respectively; and whether he will arrange to have the work done entirely in Dublin, in order to avoid the additional cost of travelling and maintenance, which the partial audit in Dublin at present entails.

THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. ELLIOT,) Durham

The additional annual cost incurred in travelling to and from Dublin, and in maintenance while there, usually amounts to less than £500. It is not possible to state what is the cost of the audit of Irish public accounts in London, as the officers engaged on it are also employed on other duties. The saving which would accrue from such a change as is suggested would not compensate for the public inconvenience which would result from the impossibility of exercising direct supervision of the work performed and of personal conference with the officers engaged upon it.

MR. LUNDON

On behalf of the hon. Member for the St. Patrick's Division of Dublin I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether, seeing that audit office officials are permanently employed at Devonport Dockyard and at other places outside of the audit office, he will, with a view to economy and efficiency, have a permanent audit office staff at Dublin.

MR. ELLIOT

The character of the work at Devonport and the other dockyards is peculiar, and is necessarily carried out on the spot, as the books and documents could not possibly be spared for transmission to London. The establishment of a permanent audit office staff in Dublin would not lead to greater economy and efficiency.

MR. LUNDON

On behalf of the hon. Member for the St. Patrick's Division of Dublin I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether his attention has been directed to the fact that the present system of mainly auditing all Irish accounts in London causes additional work in keeping duplicate records of payments in London, and that if the work were done entirely in Dublin some of this duplicating could be avoided, that books and documents essential to audit cannot be sent to London for examination, and that reference to these books and documents has to be postponed for months; and, seeing that correspondence between London and Dublin could be avoided if the audit were carried out entirely in Dublin, whether he will make arrangements to have the audit carried out entirely in Dublin.

MR. ELLIOT

Any additional work in keeping duplicate records is more than compensated for by the opportunities afforded to the Comptroller and Auditor-General of personal access to his officers. No inconvenience arises from the postponement until the annual visit of reference to the books and documents kept in Dublin. The amount of correspondence would in any case not be diminished, but would probably be increased, by the necessity for written instead of personal communication between the officers of the Exchequer and Audit Department and the Comptroller and Auditor-General.