Spenser DILU DROIT Report of the Committee on the Valuation of Navy, Army and Air Force Stocks. Presented to Parliament by the Financial Secretary April, 1927. LONDON: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE. To be purchased directly from H.M. STATIONERY OFFICE at the following addresses: Adastral House, Kingsway, London, W.C.2; 120, George Street, Edinburgh; York Street, Manchester; 1, St. Andrew's Crescent, Cardiff; 15, Donegall Square West, Belfast; 1927 Price 4d. net. 1 Cmd. 2839. MINUTE OF APPOINTMENT. TREASURY MINUTE DATED THE TWENTY SEVENTH OF SEPTEMBER, 1926. My Lords read Their Minute dated the 1st January last on the Second Report from the Public Accounts Committee 1925 and subsequent correspondence with the War Office on the subject of the annual valuation of Army Stocks. The Financial Secretary states to the Board that he proposes that a Committee should be appointed with the following terms of reference : To examine the subject of valuation of stocks held by the Navy, Army and Air Force, and to report the extent to which valuation is (a) feasible, (b) likely to be valuable as an instrument of Parliamentary or Departmental control, and the extent to which the results of valuation, if made, should be published with the accounts of Departments. He further proposes that the Committee should be constituted as follows: Lieutenant-Colonel Sir ASSHETON POWNALL, O.B.E., M.P. with Mr. P. G. INCH, of the Treasury, as Secretary. My Lords concur. 61616 A 2 REPORT. TO THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS OF HIS MAJESTY'S TREASURY. MAY IT PLEASE YOUR LORDSHIPS. 1. We were appointed by Treasury Minute, dated the 27th September, 1926, to examine the subject of valuation of stocks held by the Navy, Army and Air Force, and to report the extent to which valuation is (a) feasible (b) likely to be valuable as an instrument of Parliamentary or Departmental control, and the extent to which the results of valuation, if made, should be published with the accounts of the Departments. Since our appointment we have held seven sittings. We have been furnished by the Admiralty, the War Office and the Air Ministry with complete information on the storekeeping and store accounting systems in the three Services, and we have supplemented this written evidence by an inspection of the office of the Assistant Director of Ordnance Stores (Provision) at Pimlico, where we examined in detail the system of preparing the Store Maintenance Estimates for the Army. We have heard oral evidence by Major-General R. K. Scott, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., Director of Equipment and Ordnance Stores at the War Office, by Mr. W. Holmes, late Store Accountant, Woolwich and Pimlico, and also by Sir Malcolm Ramsay, K.C.B., the Comptroller and Auditor General, who was good enough to give us the benefit of his views on the subject of our inquiry. 2. Scope of inquiry. PART I. We have approached the question referred to us along two main lines of inquiry, firstly by a close examination of the methods of dealing with stores which are actually in use in the Services to-day, and secondly by a study of the various changes in policy and outlook since 1880 which have resulted in the present system. The results of our inquiry into existing methods will be found in Appendix 1, while we have collected together the main documents bearing on the lengthy and complicated history of the subject in Appendix 2. The existing system of store accounting consists essentially in a rigorous control of stores by quantity re-inforced by continuous stocktaking and by frequent inspection by Departmental Officers independent of the storekeeping staffs. A further safeguard is that all store records are entirely open to check and criticism by the Comptroller and Auditor General at any time at his discretion. We are satisfied that the system as we saw it in force in the case of the Royal Army Ordnance Department is adequate and efficient. valuing stocks in terms of money The utility of a system of would lie, if anywhere, in the |