Duties of Public Officers

Payment of Salaries

All Salaries for each month will be paid at the Treasury on or before the fourth day of the following month.

All Salary Accounts shall be in the printed form, "Provincial Form, No. 1."

Every Salary Account shall contain on the face of it a reference to the authority for the expenditure specified therein.

Duties of the Provincial Auditor

The Auditor will receive all bills from the several Departments of Government for audit.

It will be the duty of the Auditor to:

• Examine all such bills to see upon what authority they are demanded to be paid;
• Verify whether the account and summing be correct;
• Check whether the charge in the bill corresponds with the printed contract appended to it;
• Ensure whether the demand be within the sum voted by the Legislature for the service;
• Confirm whether the whole account be in due form.

If the Auditor be satisfied of the entire correctness of the demand, he shall certify the bill and shall immediately return it into the Treasury for payment but shall file the contract and the duplicate of Salary account.

It shall be the duty of the Auditor to examine all the vouchers in the Treasury once in every month and to see that all receipts are in due order, and that the signature of the Superintendent has in all cases where required, been affixed.

It shall be the duty of the Auditor to receive the monthly statements of Revenue received and the monthly abstract of account of Expenditure made by each Department; and having made such remarks thereon as he may think fit, to forward the same to the Superintendent.

It shall be the duty of the Auditor to examine fully all the accounts and estimates to be laid before the Provincial Council and to witness the correctness of the same.

If any bills sent into the Audit Office shall not be in proper form, or if the Auditor shall not be satisfied with the correctness of the same, he shall immediately return them for correction to the Department whence they have been sent.

If any bills shall be left outstanding beyond the end of the current month, or if any returns which are required from any officer shall not be received at the time required, the Auditor shall make a Special Report to the Superintendent and shall not pass the Salary account until the omission has been supplied.

Duties of the Provincial Treasurer

The Provincial Treasurer shall receive all monies which shall be paid to him by persons authorized by law to pay the same. And he shall give receipts for the same, in duplicate, in the form set forth in the Provincial Form, No. 6.

The Provincial Treasurer shall keep a daily Account Book, in which he shall enter every payment made to him and every payment made by him at the time when they shall be made.

The Provincial Treasurer shall also keep a Ledger Receipt Book, in which the entries of receipts in the Day-Book shall be distributed under their proper heads, according to the sources whence the payment arises.

He shall also keep a Ledger Expenditure Book, in which he shall distribute the entries of payments from the Day-Book under the heads of the several Departments on account of which the disbursement has been made.

He shall, every day, immediately prior to the closing of the Bank, lodge in the Union Bank of Australia, at Lyttelton, all monies received by him during the day on the Public Account. And he shall enter the same day by day, in a book to be called the Treasurer’s Bank Book. The Ordinary Bank Pass-Book shall be kept between the Bank and the Audit-Office.

The Provincial Treasurer shall pay all demands by cheques on the Union Bank of Australia, payable not more than four days after date, or from the Petty Cash-box, which may be kept supplied from time to time to such extent as may be necessary by cheques drawn in favour of "petty cash," signed and endorsed by the Treasurer.

On the last day of every month, the Treasurer shall pay the whole of the balance in the Petty Cash-box into the Bank.

The Provincial Treasurer shall likewise keep a Petty Cash Account Book, in which he shall enter all money paid by him into the Petty Cash-box, by cheques: and all money disbursed by him: and these entries shall always be made at the time when the payments are made on either side, and shall be faithfully dated accordingly.

The Provincial Treasurer shall make a return on the first of every month to the Auditor for transmission to the Superintendent, showing the gross amounts expended by him on account of each Department under the proper heads, during the previous month, and of the amounts so expended since the commencement of the financial year, and of the balance of the estimate voted by the Provincial Council for the service of each Department still unexpended.

It shall be the duty of the Provincial Treasurer to examine all bills passed into the Treasury for payment; to see that all...