§ MR. FIELDTo ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he will state under what authority and under what regulations the Colonial Audit Branch in London was formed under the Comptroller and Auditor General in 1889; under what authority was the power of making clerical appointments to this branch conferred on the Comptroller and Auditor General; whether the Comptroller and Auditor General had power conferred on him of nomination to appointments as auditors in certain Crown Colonies and Protectorates abroad; if so, under what authority; what authority fixed the salaries of these nomination appointments at home and abroad; and whether the cost of housing of the Colonial Audit 1550 Branch in London was paid for out of Imperial funds from 1889 to 1906, without any appropriations in aid being received from the various Crown Colonies and Protectorates in respect thereto.
(Answered by Mr. Runciman.) The Colonial Audit Branch was formed by the Comptroller and Auditor General, at the request of the Secretary of State for the Colonies and with the sanction of the Treasury, to undertake the audit of the accounts of various Colonies. In accordance with regulations framed with the concurrence of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, all appointments to the Colonial Audit Branch, both at Home and in the Colonies, were vested in the Comptroller and Auditor General. The salaries of the staff in the Colonies were approved by the Secretary of State for the Colonies; the salaries of the staff at headquarters were fixed by the Comptroller and Auditor General on the scales generally in force for the main office. With regard to the last paragraph of the Question the hon. Member is referred to the Answer given him on 7th March, 1906.†