Exchequer and Audit Departments Act 1866

38 Certificates of discharge to be delivered to Accountants.

As soon as any account shall have been signed and passed by the Comptroller and Auditor General, he shall transmit to the accountant a certificate, in which the total amount of the sums forming respectively the charge and discharge of such account, and the balance, if any, remaining due to or by such accountant shall be set forth ; and every such certificate shall be signed by him, and shall be valid and effectual to discharge the accountant as the case may be, either wholly or from so much of the amount with which he may have been chargeable as he may appear by such certificate to be discharged from : Provided always, that when any account, not being an account current, has been signed and passed by the Comptroller and Auditor General with a balance due thereon to the Crown, he shall not make out or grant any such certificate as aforesaid until the accountant has satisfied him either that he has discharged the full amount of such balance, and any interest that may as herein-after provided be payable thereon, or that he has been relieved from the payment thereof, or of so much "thereof as has not been paid, by a warrant from the Treasury.