Financial Control in Administration
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1931.tb02902.x |
| Published date | 01 July 1931 |
| Author | Edmund Lund |
| Date | 01 July 1931 |
Financial
Control
in
Administration
By
Mr.
EDMUND
LUND,
M.B.E.,
F.S.A.A.
City
Treasurer,
CarlLsle
[Paper
to
be
discussed
at the
Summer
Conference
of
the Institute
of
Public
Administration,
July,
19311
Introduction.
(I)
I
propose to deal with the subject allocated to me purely from
the
Local
Government point of view, and
in
this connection
use
the
term
"
Local Government
"
in
a
wide sense and include
within
its
ambit, County,
County
Borough, Borough, District and Parish
Councils, Joint Boards and miscellaneous authorities.
(2)
The adequate control
of
public finance is a subject very much
to the fore at the present time; as to how
it
has to be done
is
fre-
quently
a
matter
of
conjecture or impractical suggestion.
(3)
In the first place the average citizen pays
his
rates and taxes
usudy within the prescribed period and without undue pressure and
endeavours to meet
all
those other charges which
one
must pay to
live, he,
at
the same time, frequently endeavours to bring up
his
family,
if
such he possesses,
in
a
state rather better than that which
he experienced, but in connection with National
and
Civic affairs he
is
frequently woefully ignorant of the relationship that exists between
the State and the local authority with regard to even everyday services
which he enjoys, and particularly
so
in
relation to the financial
obligations which those services impose upon the community.
(4)
In the second place any discussion which we may have which
seeks to compare present day financial values With those
of
pre-war
days or even
of
10
years ago, fails
to
have true effect unless we adjust
the present day value
of
the
f,
with that
of
the period under review
and in this connection before discussing methods
of
controlling
the
expenditure
of
local authorities, it
is,
I
think, advisable that we should
know something
of
what that expenditure amounts to, and
as
to its
trend
in
an upward or downward direction.
(5)
Some twelve months ago, and for another purpose,
I
prepared,
with
considerable assistance from the Statistical Officers
of
the
Ministry
of
Health, figures and statistics relating to the
growth
of
municipal indebtedness and rate-borne expenditure, the details
from
which such information was derived being substantially set out
in
323
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