‘WAR DIARY. ARMY HEADQUARTERS, INDIA. […] I.E.F. “D”. Volume 41. PART II. (From 16th to 31st December 1917).’ [‎99r] (202/508)

administration of all territories under occupation by His Maiesty’s forces
whether in Mesopotamia or elsewhere. The local authorities were naturally
averse to pressing for such a reference to His Majesty’s Government ana
accordingly proposed that a further effort should be made to reconcile conflict
ing views by personal discussion and the Government of India were pleased to
acquiese in the suggestion that an officer should be sent to India to confer
with them on the subject with a view to arriving at a conclusion satisfactory to
all parties. J
20 . Jn the meanwhile the wheels of the administrative machine could not
he stopped and measures had to be concerted for the provisional examination,
audit and disposal of the accounts of the receipts and expenditure of the various
branches of the local administration. A provisional finance department was
formed, as a separate branch of the Chief Political Officer, and was placed under
the charge of an Assistant Political Officer working directly under the orders of
the Chief Political Officer. All officers in charge of departments and outposts
were directed to submit the whole of their monthly accounts to the new depart
ment for disposal and to no other authority, while the departments at headquar
ters .were instructed to pay in all their receipls to and draw all funds
required for expenditure from the civil treasury. The new arrargement vas in
full working order by the end of December 1915, when all connection between
the civil administration and the Military Accounts Department was finally
severed.
21 . Pinancial control was thus finally centralised in the Chief Political
Officer and it became possible to work out the details of a reasonable modus
operandi for the future. No comprehensive record of actual past receipts and
expenditure was immediately available, as accounts have hitherto been
submitted by various departments to various controlling authorities ; sanctioned
budget estimates only existed in the case of a few departments at headquarters
and, even in cases where they existed, had been rendered of little use by the
extraordinarily rapid development of the administration since they were
framed; accounts of expenditure debitable to Indian revenues had become
inextricably mixed up with those of expenditure debitable to the revenues of
the Occupied Territories, while funds allocated to definite services such as
n f p ^ d f d i local fllu ds and M aqf administration had been merged with Govern-*
nt balances; and finally no reliable data had been collected for the
preparation of a budget for the coming financial year (1916-17), To remedy
0 rt ' C 0 . m] ^ 1 o® was first task of the new department, whose current
ge ? eral ° OIltro1 of the treasury, the provision of funds
qui erl by the Military Accounts Department, the consideration and disposal
a financial problems and references mid the examination and provisional
audit of current monthly accounts as they came in from the various depart
ments and outposts. r
22. By the end of March 1910, i.e., before the close of the past financial
year, a.full and complete record of all civil receipts and expenditure from the
beginning of the occupation to the end of December 1915 had been drawn up
lor all departments and outposts and compared with such budget estimates as
existed. On the basis of the figures thus recorded—figures, which may be
taken as completely reliable except in the case of the Police Department, whose
accounts were dealt with by the Military Accounts Department up to that
ate, and of one or tvvo outposts, where subsequent enquiry showed that the
original .figuies required revision, estimates of receipts and expenditure for
the coming financial year were prepared as also revised estimates for the year
then still current. The statement wa* subsequently completed bv the inclusion
of asceitamed details of reoeipts and expenditure for the whole past financial
1 c ° D f aiIls a full record in tabular form of the financial operations
of the .local administration from the beginning of the occupation of these
territories up to the end of March 3916 as well as to the estimates for the
current year.
i'hj s < s t a f® a 'i e nt all funds of a special or local nature, such as
Waqf and Municipal funds, were excluded as they could not strictlv speaking
be considered financial assets of the local administration, while it was further
arranged, as being more expedient, that such funds should be administered
personally by the officers in charge of them, subject to the submission of
monthly accounts, for comparison with the records of the Treasury and a
periodical overhauling and inspection by an auditor.