Parliamentary Control of Government Expenditure1
| Author | Osbert Peake |
| Published date | 01 June 1948 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1948.tb02639.x |
| Date | 01 June 1948 |
Parliamentary Control
of
Government
Expenditure’
By
the
Rt.
Hon.
OSBERT
PEAKE,
M.P.,
Chrm
of
the
Public
Accounts
Committee
ILST the title
of
this
address1
is
“
Parliamentary Control of Government
Vxpenditure,”
I
should like to explain at
the
outset that
I
am
using the word
expenditure in the narrow sense of money which has actually been expended,
and
I
intend to limit my observations
to
a
survey of the past history and
future
application of parliamentary control over what is technically
known
as Appmpria-
rion. In the wider sense
of
the word, expenditure
might
include, of course,
projected expenditure
and
expenditure current at any given moment of time. If
I were to base my address on this wider sense of the word
I
should have to
describe to
you
the work
of
the Committees
of
Supply,
and
Ways and Means;
the preparation of Estimates; the mechanism of Treasury control; the rules
of
procedure
of
the Hcuse
of
Commons relating to Financial Resolutions; the enact-
ment of Consolidated Fund and Appropriation Bills,
as
well as those functions of
the Comptroller and Auditor-General relating to the issue of money from the
Exchequer and from the Consolidated Fund.
My purpose today
is
a more limited one, and will deal in the
main
with
the steps taken by Parliament
to
see
that
public money has
been
expended on
the purposes for which it has been voted, and that no unnecessary waste has
occurred in achieving those purposes.
HISTORICAL
SLTRVEY
The struggle for control of axation by Parliament was fought and won
in
the early part of
the
seventeenth century, but no attempt was made by the
House of Commons
to
establish control over expenditure until the Dutch Was
ot
1665-67. England was then, as usual, ill-prepared for war. The Navy
required in particular,
men,
money,
meat
and munitions. Samuel Pepys, the
Secretary
of
the Navy Board, had done his best
to
procure the necessary money
when,
in
company with Sir George Carteret and Sir Philip Warwick of
the
Treasury, he had helped to
“
cook” the Navy Estimates for Parliament, the
three
of
them,
in
Pepys’ words,
“
Studying all we could
to
make
the
last year’s
swell as high as we could.”
On
the
conclusion
of
the war, Parliament was much exercised regarding
a
number
of
naval contracts, particularly those for niasts. Commissioners of
Acmunt were appointed, before
whom
Pepys appeared, and the report
d
rhe
Commissioners was read in the House by Mr. Speaker on 28th February, 1668.
On 5th March,
Mr.
Pepys, fortified
by
half a
pint
of
mulled sack
and
a dram
of brandy,
was
summoned to the Bar of the House, where he dedended the Navy
Board
in
a
speech which was voted a masterpiece, and
which
lasted for threc
hours and a half. Thereafter Parliamentary interest in Appropriation lapsed for
over a century.
In 1785, by
an
Act
of
Parliament,
“
Commissioners for Auditing the Public
Accounts
”
were created. These Commissioners were, however, subordinate
to
~
Read before the Institute of
Public
Administration
in
London
on
13th
January,
1948.
77
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