FLYING BOAT HULL CONSTRUCTION—CANADIAN AEROPLANES LIMITED.
Such in brief are the fundamentals, but without further detail the service given by the Aviation Department could not be realized. The following notes therefore, should prove of interest.
Accounts were under the immediate direction of the Secretary. So speedily was the Department organized that time did not afford to investigate either the system to be adopted or the number of accounts to be opened. Flexibility was in consequence desirable, and when in October, 1918, a new set of ledger headings were called for by the Air Ministry, there was neither difficulty nor delay in remodelling the existing accounts to the new form.
The Department was authorized to make disbursements from an imprest fund when immediate payment was necessary, but this method was only used when unavoidable, as for instance, outlay in staff payrolls, initial payments for leases, and in cases where a discount period had nearly lapsed. For such outlay repayment cheque to the fund was always subsequently issued.
The standard method of meeting obligations was by sending certified bills to the Finance Department, Imperial Munitions Board, at Ottawa, where cheques were issued therefor. These bills were listed in alphabetical order, and also chronologically under each creditor’s name. Confusion of any kind was entirely avoided.
During those months when contractors were employed in the erection of buildings and other work, the Aviation Department was continually represented at the contractor’s office by an auditing staff. These officials checked all time worked, and all disbursements of every nature on the part of the contractor. Such obligations were paid by the latter, who then forwarded the receipted bills to the Department. There they were recorded and sent on to Ottawa for payment.
Extraneous accounting was done in the United States. When a large part of the brigade went to Texas in November, 1917, the omnipresent “I.M.B.” accompanied in the person of the Chief Purchasing Agent, fortified with an imprest fund. This, deposited in the National City Bank, permitted local payments, which in turn were submitted to the Toronto Office with the necessary vouchers. In addition to all the foregoing, the Board at Ottawa was represented by a travelling auditor who checked all expenditure before it was submitted to Ottawa. Thus the Chief Auditor was kept constantly informed, and enabled to make regular reports to the Ministry of Munitions in England of all disbursements by the Aviation Department.