This Bill provides that the remuneration of the Comptroller and Auditor General shall, with retrospective effect to 1st November, 1961, be the same as the normal salary for Secretary of a Department. This general linking of the rate to the normal rate for Secretary of a Department from that date would enable eighth and ninth round pay increases to be made to the Comptroller and Auditor General, whose present rate of remuneration (£2,850) has not changed since it was last revised with effect from 1st January, 1959. The revised rates payable to him would be £3,375 with effect from 1st November, 1961, and £3,780 with effect from 1st February, 1964.
The office of Comptroller and Auditor General is provided for as the Seanad is aware, in Article 33 (1) of the Constitution, which reads:
There shall be a Comptroller and Auditor General to control on behalf of the State all disbursements and to audit all accounts of moneys administered by or under the authority of the Oireachtas.
The Comptroller and Auditor General's salary, like the remuneration of the judiciary, is determined by statute. Up to 1962 his salary was increased on each occasion on which the remuneration of the judiciary was increased (1947, 1953 and 1959). Following the increase enacted for the judiciary in 1962, legislation would have been proposed for an increase in the Comptroller and Auditor General's remuneration were it not for the intervention of the White Paper Closing the Gap early in 1963. The Courts (Supplemental Provisions) (Amendment) Act, 1964, has recently authorised a further increase for the judiciary with effect from 1st February last.
Since, 1923, when the Comptroller and Auditor General's salary was first fixed, it has been increased only on the occasions of and with effect from the same date as increases for the judiciary. However, although increases for the Comptroller and Auditor General have in timing been associated with those for the judiciary, their amount has been determined by reference to the normal rate for Secretary of a Department. When first fixed in 1923, the Comptroller and Auditor General's rate was slightly in excess of that for Secretary. The relationship between the two rates has varied from time to time over the years but the various reviews of the Comptroller and Auditor General's salary resulted in its coming approximately into line again with the Secretary rate.
The fact that from time to time the Comptroller and Auditor General rate lagged behind the Secretary rate is attributable to the delay inherent in the method of adjusting his remuneration by statute, whereas the rate for the civil servants was, of course, increased by direct action. While there was a case for the system of statutory adjustment—in that it highlighted the Comptroller and Auditor General's independent position—when changes were infrequent, such a system is in danger, in the light of the experience of recent years, to lead to unreasonable delays in future in adjusting his remuneration. To avoid such delays, provision is being made in the Bill for permanent identity between his rate and the normal Secretary rate; future adjustments in the latter rate would thus automatically become payable to the Comptroller and Auditor General.
