§ MR. HIGHAM (Yorkshire, W.R., Sowerby)To ask the Secretary to the Treasury, in connection with the inquiry of the Royal Commission on the scandals connected with the purchases and re-sales of stores in and after the late South African War, how many clerks are engaged upon the audit of the accounts; what fee per day is being paid for each clerk to the firm which permanently employs these clerks; when the audit began; and when it is expected to terminate.
(Answered by Mr. McKenna.) The work to which the hon. Member refers, which was undertaken by direction of the Royal Commission on War Stores in South Africa, was not so much an audit of accounts as an inquiry by a firm of chartered accountants into the accounts of the War Office with reference to transactions during and after the war. 1335 The accountants began their work on July 29th, 1905, and concluded it, by submitting a report to the Royal Commission, on March 19th, 1906. The number of professional clerks employed by the firm was thirty from July to September, and forty from October onwards, with an addition of twenty clerks supplied by the Civil Service Commissioners for the more mechanical work. These numbers were gradually reduced as the inquiry drew to a close. The fees stipulated for by the firm were at the rate of three guineas a day for chief clerks and one and a half guineas a day for other professional clerks, but owing to the unexpected length of time occupied by the work, an abatement was made on the settlement of the account by which these rates were somewhat reduced.