Comptrollers of Army Accounts were British public officials first appointed on 10 June 1703, by the

Lord High Treasurer The post of Lord High Treasurer or Lord Treasurer was an English government position and has been a British government position since the Acts of Union of 1707. A holder of the post would be the third-highest-ranked Great Officer of State in ...

, Lord Godolphin; there were two

Comptrollers A comptroller (pronounced either the same as ''controller'' or as ) is a management-level position responsible for supervising the quality of accounting and financial reporting of an organization. A financial comptroller is a senior-level executi ...

(assisted by a Secretary and eight clerks). Initially under the authority of the Commander-in-Chief, they were instead made accountable to the

Treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or ...

in 1708.

Role

The Comptrollers were established to audit the accounts of all army

Paymaster A paymaster is someone appointed by a group of buyers, sellers, investors or lenders to receive, hold, and dispense funds, commissions, fees, salaries (remuneration) or other trade, loan, or sales proceeds within the private sector or public secto ...

s and

regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation. In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscripted ...

s, to keep an account of all weapons, tents and provisions issued to each regiment (to ensure that each regiment was duly charged for what it received) and to inspect all

muster rolls The term muster means the process or event of accounting for members in a military unit. This practice of inspections led to the coining of the English idiom , meaning being sufficient. When a unit is created, it is "mustered in" and when it is d ...

. To begin with, they also had responsibility for inspecting the clothing contracts entered into by each regiment but in 1708 this duty was handed over to a separate Clothing Board established under the Board of General Officers. In 1783 the role of the Comptrollers was extended, to cover 'the examination of the Provision and Store accounts of the

Commissariat A commissariat is a department or organization commanded by a commissary or by a corps of commissaries. In many countries, commissary is a police rank. In those countries, a commissariat is a police station commanded by a commissary. In some ar ...

Department'. In 1785 the two Comptrollers of Army Accounts were made ''ex officio'' members of the new Audit Board (the Commissioners for Auditing Public Accounts). In 1806 the Comptrollers were separated from the Audit Board; their responsibilities and powers were again extended and a third Comptroller was appointed (however, when he died in office in 1830, he was not replaced). By 1833 they were described as: "''Comptrollers'' of all ''extraordinary'' military expenditure (except that connected with the Ordnance department) and ''auditors'' of the provision and store accounts of all Commissariat and other officers in charge of stores (except ordnance) on foreign service".

Demise

In 1835 the office of the Comptrollers of Army Accounts was dissolved and its responsibilities given to the

Commissioners of Audit The Commissioners of Audit had responsibility from 1785 to 1866 for the auditing of public accounts in the United Kingdom. History In 1785 a ''Commission for Auditing the Public Accounts'' was established by statute, replacing the Auditors of the ...

List of Comptrollers

References

{{reflist British Army HM Treasury 1703 establishments in England 1835 disestablishments in the United Kingdom