COMMITTEE. (Hansard, 17 August 1894)

§ * LORD WELBY

moved an Amendment to Sub-section 7, providing for an audit by a district auditor of the accounts of the parishes which received grants under the Bill. He said, that he should have hoped for some encouragement from the Prime Minister, but that perhaps at that period of the Session he must not be sanguine; that in another place fears had been expressed that the Bill would lead to extravagance, and its object thus frustrated: that, in the words of Mr. Goschen, the gain to the constituents would be loss to the Metropolis, and ultimately to the constituents themselves, unless the Bill were so hedged round as to secure increased efficiency' in the application of the funds. On the point of financial check there lies an obvious deficiency in the Bill, since it only required the rendering of a statement of expenditure by the Sanitary Authority, unaccompanied by any provision for independent audit. He was quite aware that an independent audit did not necessarily stop extravagance, but it would stop irregular expenditure, and would have a tendency to curb extravagance if the Report of the auditor was published. It might be said that there was already a local auditor of these charges appointed by the ratepayers. That was so, but that auditor was not an expert, and the Bill did not even provide for the appending of his certificate to the account. Appending the certificate of a local auditor would hardly be satisfactory, and an unaudited account was worthless. They had, however, at 1369 hand an expert in the district auditor appointed by the Local Government Board, and lie suggested that the Report of that officer upon the expenditure of the grant should be obtained before any further issue was made to a Sanitary Authority out of the equalisation grant. Some day an extended public audit of all local expenditure would be required, but that day was possibly distant. In the Meantime, there could be no harm in adopting the system suggested in the Amendment.

THE EARL OF ROSEBERY

My Lords, I welcome this Amendment with the greatest sincerity, though I am quite unable to adopt it, because it has afforded my noble Friend an opportunity for the first time of making a contribution to the Debates in this House upon a subject in which he is an expert. I trust we shall often have similar opportunities. I am far from contending that the system of auditing the accounts of District Boards is perfect, and, in fact, I am very much inclined to agree with the opinion of the noble Lord that an independent audit is desirable. I think, however, that the present proposal will rather tend to increase the anomalies of the present system Khan to diminish them, because in the parishes which pay the result will remain as at present, and in the parishes which receive the grant there will be a double audit — audit as at present and audit by the district auditor. I am inclined to think that such a large reform as this would imply still larger reforms, and the suggested reform is not one which can be brought about on this occasion or in this Bill. I think it ought to be carefully considered whether some reform of the system of audit should not lie adopted for all Boards instead of for a part of them; but in order to do this, more time will be needed for the consideration of the subject than could be obtained at this period of the Session. Full opportunity should also be afforded to the bodies affected to express their opinions and to offer suggestions. If my noble 1370 Friend in the leisure of the recess will undertake to deal with this question as a whole, and bring in a well-considered measure, or suggest one to be brought into the other House, I am sure it will receive the most favourable consideration of Her Majesty's Government.