§ 26. Sir W. de FRECEasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether there is any regular organised system in operation in our Crown Colonies for an independent technical, as distinct from the usual Audit Department, examination of the accounts of expenditure on large capital works carried out Departmentally, so as to ensure that the sums voted are properly accounted for in the volume and quality of work provided for in the original estimates, as would be 38 done were a contractor employed to do the work?
§ Mr. ORMSBY-GOREThe arrangements for supervising expenditure on works carried out Departmentally depend on the circumstances of each ease. For example, in the construction of East African railways under Departmental control, most of the work is let out on minor contracts, the execution of which is examined by the engineer in charge of construction and a special accounting staff. On other cases there is not usually an independent technical check of the kind mentioned, but the expenditure is audited by the Audit Department of the Colony, which in most Colonies works under the Director of Colonial Audit in London, while the responsibility for the proper execution of the work rests with the head of the technical Department concerned who, in the case of railways, has obviously the greatest interest in its being carried out efficiently, in order that the working and maintenance of the line under his responsibility may not suffer by any defect.