Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
The House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts has been in existence since Confederation. The earliest antecedent of the Public Accounts Committee in Canada was the Committee of the Legislative Council that was formed when civil government was proclaimed in Quebec in October 1763. Since then, other committees have occasionally superceded the Committee. Immediately following Confederation, the Public Accounts Committee was reconstituted as a standing committee of the house. The Committee was established to faithfully maintain accurate bookkeeping of all financial transactions involving public monies. In 1931, the dual functions of the control of issue and the audit of expenditure were separated into two distinct positions. The Auditor General retained full responsibility for executing an independent post-audit of government expenditures. A new position was formed, the Comptroller of the Treasury, to control the issue of monies and carry out an executive pre-audit before payment.