CHAPTER IX. Accounts of District and Parish Councils and Parish Meetings Accounts-Audit of Accounts. Period to which accounts to be made up. DISTRICT AND PARISH COUNCILS AND PARISH MEETINGS. THE accounts of the receipts and payments of Parish and District Councils, and of Parish Meetings for parishes not having Parish Councils, and their committees and officers, are required to be made up yearly to the thirty-first day of March, or in the case of accounts which are to be audited half-yearly, then half-yearly to the thirtieth day of September and the thirty-first day of March in each year, and in such form as the Local Government Board prescribe (s. 58 (1)). The accounts of Local Boards and of Improvement Commissioners Local Boards and Improveand of their respective officers, are now made up and balanced to the 25th of March in each year. ment Commissions. Borough accounts are made up half-yearly to the 25th of March Boroughs. and 29th of September in each year. The audit is also half-yearly. overseers. The accounts of guardians and their officers and of the overseers Guardians and and of every collector (which includes an assistant overseer) are required by the General Order for Accounts issued by the Poor Law Board on the 14th of January, 1867, to be made up and balanced to the 25th of March and the 29th of September in each year. These provisions were applicable to the guardians acting as the Rural Sanitary Authority (38 & 39 Vict. c. 55, s. 248). Highway Boards, Surveyors of Highways and Boards for the Highways. Repair of the Highways make up their accounts yearly to the 25th of March. Urban District Rural Councils, Section 58 (1) of the Local Government Act, 1894, applies to the accounts of both Urban and Rural District Councils, including Non-county boroughs other than county boroughs. The accounts of non-county Boroughs, boroughs will be made up to the 31st of March and 30th of September in each year, and the accounts of other Urban District Parish Councils, Councils will be made up once a year to the 31st of March. Rural Parish Meetings, District Councils and their officers will make up their accounts halfyearly to the same dates as the Town Councils of non-county Boroughs. Parish Councils, and Parish Meetings, and their officers will make up their accounts yearly to the 31st of March. An assistant overseer is, unless appointed by a Board of Guardians, an officer of the Parish Accounts. Period to which to be made up. Assistant over seer. Guardians and Highway authorities. Forms will be prescribed. Inspection of Council (where there is a Parish Council (s. 81 (3) ), and his accounts will therefore be made up yearly to the same date as the accounts of that Council. The accounts of guardians and their officers and of the overseers and of any assistant overseer will, in a parish not having a separate Parish Council, until the Local Government Board make any order directing otherwise, continue to be made up and balanced to the 25th of March and the 29th of September. Where the transfer to the Rural District Council of the powers of Highway Authorities under section 25 (1) is postponed, the accounts of the Highway Authority will also, until otherwise ordered by the Local Government Board, be made up to the 25th of March in each year. Probably the Local Government Board will assimilate the period of making up the accounts of officers and authorities not affected by the Act to the dates fixed by the Act for the accounts of other authorities. Under section 73 of the Local Government Act, 1888, the "local financial year" ends on the 31st of March. That year is, under the Act, applicable to the accounts of County Councils, and the same year should apply to the accounts of every Local Authority. A form of accounts will have to be prescribed by the Local Government Board for the accounts of Parish and District Councils, and of Parish Meetings, and of their respective committees and officers. Every parochial elector of a rural parish is entitled at all reasonable times, without payment, to inspect and take copies of and extracts from all books, accounts, and documents belonging to or under the control of the Parish Council of the parish or Parish Meeting, or of the District Council of the district in which the parish is situated (s. 58 (4) (5) ). The power of inspection conferred by this provision is in addition to the power to inspect accounts and other documents deposited seven clear days before the audit, see next page. Audit of Accounts. The accounts of Parish and District Councils and of Parish Meetings for parishes not having Parish Councils, and their committees and officers, except accounts audited by the auditors of a Borough (but inclusive of the accounts of a joint committee appointed by a Borough Council with another Council not being a Borough Council) District auditor. will be audited by a district auditor, and the enactments relating to audit by district auditors of accounts of Urban Sanitary Authorities and their officers, and to all matters incidental thereto and consequential thereon, will apply accordingly, except that in the case of the accounts of Rural District Councils, their committees and officers, the audit is to be half-yearly instead of yearly (s. 58 (2)). Sections 247, 249, and 250 of the Public Health Act, 1875, which relate to the audit of accounts of Urban Sanitary Authorities and their officers are printed at pages 323 to 325 of the Appendix. The Dates of audit. accounts are to be audited as soon as can be after the 31st of March, and, where the accounts are made up half-yearly, the 30th of September in each year by the District Auditors appointed by the Local Government Board under the District Auditors Act, 1879 (42 & 43 Vict. c. 6). The Authority whose accounts are audited, must pay a stamp duty Stamp duty. for accounts thus audited. The District Auditor will give notice to the Authority of the time and place at which the audit will be made, and after receiving that notice the Authority must give at least fourteen days' notice of that time and place, and also of the deposit of accounts they are required to make, by advertisement in one or more local newspapers. accounts, &c. A copy of the accounts, duly made up and balanced, together with Deposit of all rate books, account books, deeds, contracts, accounts, vouchers, and receipts, mentioned or referred to in such accounts, must be deposited in the office of the Authority, and must be open during office hours to the inspection of all persons interested, for seven clear days before the audit, and all such persons may take copies or extracts free of charge. books, &c. For the purpose of the audit the District Auditor may, by summons, Production of in writing, require the production of all books, deeds, accounts, &c., that he may deem necessary, and may require any person holding or accountable for such books, &c., to appear before him and sign a declaration as to their correctness. items. Any ratepayer or owner of property in the parish or district may be Objection to present at the audit, and may make any objection to the accounts before the District Auditor, and such ratepayers and owners have the same right of appeal against allowances by a District Auditor as is given in the case of disallowances. The District Auditor must disallow every item of account contrary Certificate of to law, and surcharge the same on the person making or authorising auditor. the making of the illegal payment; he must charge against any person accounting the amount of any deficiency incurred by the negligence or misconduct of that person, or of any sum which ought to have been, but is not, brought into account by that person. In every case of disallowance or surcharge, he must certify the amount due from such person, and on application by any party aggrieved, must state in writing the reasons for his decision in respect of such disallowance or surcharge, and also of any allowance which he may have made. Any person aggrieved by disallowance, may apply to the Queen's Appeal against Bench Division of the High Court for a writ of certiorari, to remove the disallowance into that court; or such person may appeal to the Local Government Board against the auditor's decision. Instructions have been issued by the Local Government Board for the guidance of persons desiring to appeal. They are printed at pages 417 and 418 of the Appendix. auditor's decision Audit of accounts. Payment of sums certified. Report of auditor. Audit of accounts of guardians, union officers, overseers and assistant Overseers. Audit of accounts of Every sum certified to be due from any person by the District Auditor, must be paid by such person to the Treasurer of the Authority within fourteen days after the same has been so certified, unless there is an appeal. If the sum is not paid, the Auditor may recover the same. Within fourteen days after the completion of the audit, the District Auditor must report on the accounts audited, and deliver his report to the clerk of the County Council, who must deposit the same in their office and must publish an abstract of the accounts in one or more local newspapers. The accounts of guardians and of union officers and of overseers and of any assistant overseer of a parish not having a separate Parish Council, will continue to be audited by the district auditor under sections 32 to 36 of the Poor Law Amendment Act, 1844 (7 & 8 Vict. c. 101); sections 5 to 9 of the Poor Law Audit Act, 1848 (11 & 12 Vict. c. 91); sections 9 to 11 of the Poor Law Amendment Act, 1849 (12 & 13 Vict. c. 103); sections 5 and 6 of the Poor Law Amendment Act, 1866 (29 & 30 Vict. c. 113); the District Auditors Act, 1879 (42 & 43 Vict. c. 6); and the general order for accounts of the Poor Law Board dated 14th of January, 1867. In the main the provisions as to the audit of union accounts are very similar to the provisions of the Public Health Act, 1875, relating to the audit of accounts of urban sanitary authorities, but notices of the audit are published by the auditor, and no abstract of accounts is required to be published by the guardians, overseers, or other officer whose accounts are audited. In a few cases the accounts of Municipal Corporations are, under certain boroughs. their local Acts, audited by district auditors. The accounts in such cases will continue to be so audited. Rules as to publication of notice of audit, &c. Audit of accounts of superseded authorities. The Local Government Board may, with respect to any audit to which section 58 of the Local Government Act, 1894, applies, make rules modifying the enactments as to publication of notice of the audit and of the abstract of accounts and the report of the auditor (s. 58 (3)). This provision will enable the Local Government Board to relax such of the requirements relating to publication of the notice of the audit, and of the abstract of accounts as might by reason of the expense involved in the publication, be burdensome to small parishes without any corresponding advantage to such parishes. There does not appear to be any enactment requiring the report of the auditor on the audit of accounts of an urban sanitary authority to be published. The accounts of all receipts and expenditure before the appointed day are to be audited, and disallowances, surcharges, and penalties recovered and enforced, and other consequential proceedings had, in like manner as nearly as may be as if the Local Government Act had not passed, but as soon as practicable after the appointed day; and every authority, committee, or officer whose duty it is to make up any accounts, or to account for any portion of the receipts or expenditure in any account, shall, until the audit is completed, be deemed for the purpose of such audit to continue in office, and be bound to perform the same duties and render the same accounts and be subject to the same liabilities as before the appointed day (s. 85 (2)). Under this provision the authorities newly elected under the Act in or after November next, will start free and unfettered so far as the accounts of the receipts and expenditure of their predecessors are concerned. The first audit of the accounts of the newly elected authorities will take place as soon as can be after the 31st of March, 1895. M |