170 THE BRITISH APPROACH TO POLITICS

of activity, it is to everyone's interest that this should be done
without waste of money. There would be no sense in spending
£28,000,000 on the "Home Department, Law and Justice", if
the same results could be achieved for £20,000,000. A good
financial system will contain provision for watching expenditure
in the interests of this kind of economy.

Government Accounts come under the eye of the Comptroller
and Auditor-General, who, like a judge, cannot be removed
from office save,at the request of both Houses of Parliament,
and whose salary is a Consolidated Fund charge. As Comptroller
he sees that all money collected goes into'the Consolidated Fund,
and that none goes out without the proper Parliamentary
authorisation. As Auditor he examines all the Accounts to see
that the money has only been spent in the ways which Parliament
approves. It is dear that he is not concerned with economy, but
with the supremacy of Parliament over expenditure. If a Minister
wished to equip his Department with the most luxurious furniture
and persuaded Parliament to approve the necessary Vote, the
Comptroller-General, seeing the Parliamentary authority, would
raise no objection. It is significant that the phrase "uncontrolled
expenditure" which in everyday speech would mean extravagance,
means in official language, expenditure which Parliament has not
approved. The reports of the Comptroller-General come before
the Public Accounts Committee, composed of fifteen ALP.'s..
This Committee may criticise extravagance, but it also is chiefly
concerned with keeping the Government under Parliamentary
control. Since, however, the reports describe expenditure in
great detail, serious waste is not likely to remain hidden.

The body really charged with the prevention of waste is the
Estimates Committee, composed in the same way as that on
Public Accounts. It examines in detail the record of one Depart-
ment after another and presents.annual reports. But the work is
so great that the Committee rarely deals with more than one
Department each year; nor does the House of Commons give
sufficient time to consideration of its reports.