HC Deb 28 July 1908 vol 193 cc1202-4
MR. FIELD

To ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether, seeing that special terms are now given by the Comptroller and Auditor-General to local auditors and assistant auditors in the Crown Colonies and Protectorates who have volunteered to come home from unhealthy climates, he will explain why it was necessary to give these special terms to these officials serving in such climates in addition to granting them the privilege of returning to the United Kingdom.

MR. FIELD

To ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he will explain why the ex-Second Division clerks in the Exchequer and Audit Department, who have voluntarily accepted liability to serve abroad, and some of whom are serving abroad, are not put on the same scale of salary as the nominated members who entered the old Colonial Audit Branch without any actual educational test examination.

MR. FIELD

To ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he will explain how, seeing that members of the Colonial Audit Branch now serving abroad are offered special terms on coming home on condition that they remain liable for a further term of service abroad, this liability applies in the case of a man who returns on, account of a breakdown in health, and who under the old system would have returned under similar circumstances to a scale of salary only equal to that of the old Second Division clerks.

MR. FIELD

To ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he will explain, why, seeing that those members of the Colonial Audit Branch who, prior to amalgamation, returned to headquarters after service abroad, either on account of ill-health or unfitness, were placed on a scale of salary similar to that of the old Second Division and remained liable for service abroad, a salary based on an initial salary of £100 per annum is now offered to those who return under similar conditions, while it was denied to those former members of the Second Division who became examiners at the reorganisation in 1905.

MR. FIELD

To ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he will explain why in the Exchequer and Audit Department two bodies of men are employed on identical work with identical periods of service to their credit, the one, however, receiving from £65 to £115 per annum more salary in consequence of service performed on petty accounts abroad for which they were liable on entry and had been already adequately recompensed financially.

MR. FIELD

To ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he will explain why, seeing that members of the Colonial Audit Branch who entered by the system which has now broken down, and who were sent abroad in many cases with insufficient training, are offered with the sanction of the Treasury special terms if they elect to come home and enter the main office, a considerable body of men who entered under the Order in Council of 21st March, 1890, who became examiners at the reorganisation of 1905, and from whose ranks men have been chosen for the examination of accounts in the Colonial Audit Branch, and volunteers have been called for to serve abroad, are compelled to remain for periods varying from twelve to nineteen years at a considerable financial disadvantage as compared with contemporaries in other offices with inferior certificates who have benefited under the Order in Council of December, 1907.

MR. FIELD

To ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he will explain why, seeing that members of the Colonial Audit Branch of the Exchequer and Audit Department who joined that branch before the amalgamation did so for the express purpose of a career abroad, and that the Department now finds great difficulty in filling vacancies which occur in the Colonies and Protectorates, it was considered necessary to offer them exceptional terms as an inducement to return home.

MR. FIELD

To ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he will explain why the six nominated members of the old Colonial Audit Branch of the Exchequer and Audit Department, who were serving at headquarters at the time of the amalgamation on a scale of salary, £70, £5, £100, being unfit for service abroad consequent on lack of training or health, were immediately advanced to a salary of £100 per annum, whereas certain Second Division clerks who were transferred to the Colonial Audit Branch, consequent on the breakdown of the system till then in force, were compelled to continue on the scale that the Colonial Audit Branch men had been receiving.

(Answered by Mr. Hobhouse.) I have nothing to add to the previous replies in connection with these points.