Exchequer and Audit Departments Act, 1866

Annual accounts of the appropriation of the supply grants comprised in the Appropriation Act.

22. On or before the days specified in the respective columns of schedule A. annexed to this Act, accounts of the appropriation of the several supply grants comprised in the Appropriation Act of each year shall be prepared by the several departments, and be transmitted for examination to the Comptroller and Auditor General and to the Treasury, and when certified and reported upon as herein-after directed they shall be laid before the House of Commons; and such accounts shall be called the “appropriation accounts” of the moneys expended for the services to which they may respectively relate; and the Treasury shall determine by what departments such accounts shall be prepared and rendered to the Comptroller and Auditor General; and the Comptroller and Auditor General shall certify and report upon such accounts as herein-after directed; and the reports thereon shall be signed by the Comptroller and Auditor General: Provided always, and it is the intention of this Act, that the Treasury shall direct that the department charged with the expenditure of any vote under the authority of the Treasury shall prepare the appropriation account thereof: Provided also, that the term “department,” when used in this Act in connexion with the duty of preparing the said appropriation accounts, shall be construed as including any public officer or officers to whom that duty may be assigned by the Treasury.