| AdminHistory | Finance was an independent department until 1990 with two Chief Officers, A Dalton (1962-1976) and A K Kinnear (1976-1990). When Kinnear retired in 1990 his retirement coincided with that of Mr Ritchie, Secretary and Legal Advisor. As the two heads of service retired at the same time it was decided to use the opportunity to amalgamate Finance, Legal and Administration in to a new directorate, Financial and Management Services.
As part of FMSD, the Head of Finance was Tom Edge.
The Finance Department had 3 main objectives:
1. To ensure availability of funds to enable approved policies and plans.
2. Advise on financial viability of implementing plans.
3. To Control incurring and meeting expenses, to arrange payment, and to carry out an internal audit function.
4. To ensure payments were received from persons using Corporation services.
Financial policies were laid down in Standing Orders by the Board, who, in turn, had to comply with the financial requirements as set out the by Secretary of State for Scotland.
Initially, the Scottish Development Department required annual estimates of Corporation finances before approvals for individual projects could be made. This was changed in 1972 when Scottish Economic Planning Deparment introduced Management Accounts and 5 year capital survey reports. This gave the Corporation more delegated authority than it had previously enjoyed, with project by project approval abandoned. From 1972 New Town Corporations had to control expenditure, with their projected annual totals approved by the Secretary of State, and without the detailed scrutiny formerly carried out by SDD. In this process the Corporation set out detailed budgets/estimates for each year, and reviewed expenditure on a monthly basis. Prior to any major works work being approved, the Corporation had to confirm to the SEPD that their expenditure would remain within approval for that year.
The Board, the Chief Executive and Chief Officers were all delegated certain amounts of financial outlay that they could authorise without approval from the next level in the management hierarchy. |
| ScopeandContent | 10 series comprising:
1. Annual Accounts, 1964 -1997
2. Asset Valuations, 1989-1994
3. Annual Estimates, 1964-1977
4. General Ledgers, 1962-1997
5. Cash Books, 1962-1997
6. Management Accounts (Form B's), 1989-1991
7. Internal Audit, 1989-1996
8. Files of the Director of Financial and Management Services Directorate, 1992-1997
9. Housing financial documentation, 1980-1990 |