Committee Reports::Report - Appropriation Accounts 1955 - 1956::19 February, 1958::Appendix


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APPENDIX XIX.

ADVANCES TO SEA FISHERIES ASSOCIATION.

Clerk to the Committee of Public Accounts.

As promised at the meeting of the Public Accounts Committee on the 9th October, I enclose a statement setting out the position in regard to the accumulated balances of unpaid instalments of annuities on Exchequer advances made to the former Sea Fisheries Association for financing the supply of boats and gear to fishermen on hire-purchase terms.

(Signed) J. DEMPSEY,

Accounting Officer.

18th October, 1957.

SUBHEAD H(4)—APPROPRIATIONS-IN-AID. ADVANCES FOR BOATS AND GEAR.

The deficiency in repayment of advances made to the former Sea Fisheries Association represents accumulated balances of unpaid instalments of annuities on Exchequer advances made to that body from its establishment in 1930 up to the date of its dissolution on 23rd April, 1952, for financing the supply of boats and gear to fishermen on hire-purchase terms. Repayments depend upon the earnings of the hire-purchasers concerned which for several years past have not been sufficient to repay the instalments of annuities falling due and the arrears now include a certain hard core of debt which is progressively becoming larger in ratio to the amounts that may be deemed to be recoverable. Due to gradual wastage of chattels and other reasons, the arrears tend to increase from year to year as further instalments of annuities fall due, but the acceleration in the rate of increase from £72,206 on 31/3/55 to £92,745 at 31/3/56 is more apparent than real and is accounted for by the fact that a sum of £5,222 due in respect of the year 1955/56 was not brought to account until immediately after the close of that year (vide Note (4) at page 81 of the Appropriations Accounts, 1955/56, explaining the deficiency of £5,222 in the repayment of advances made to the former Sea Fisheries Association which covered development projects as well as boats and gear transactions). As a corollary, repayments in 1956/57 show a surplus over estimated receipts. Had the sum of £5,222 in question been brought to account in 1955/56, the rate of increase in arrears for that year would have been reasonably in line with that of the preceding five years as will be seen from the following published set of figures—

Year ended 31st March		Repayments during year	Total repayments to end of year	Total of matured instalments at end of year	Unpaid arrears of instalments at end of year
		£	£	£	£
1957	..	13,944	228,116	330,985	102,869
1956	..	4,500	214,172	306,917	92,745
1955	..	13,222	209,672	281,878	72,206
1954	..	16,722	196,450	255,648	59,198
1953	..	13,937	179,728	227,928	48,200
1952	..	16,500	165,791	199,316	33,525
1951	..	12,592	149,291	174,598	25,307

It should be mentioned that the arrears cannot directly be related to any particular annuities and for book-keeping purposes the practice is to apply repayments each year in liquidation of the earlier advances in turn. In that way, 24 advances made in the term 1/10/31-26/2/36 were liquidated by 31/3/56 and 6 further advances had been liquidated by 31/3/57.

October, 1957.