Exchequer and Audit Departments Act 1866

41 Adjustment off balances on accounts, and when interest may be charged on such balances.

Every accountant shall; on the termination of his charge as such accountant, or in case of a deceased accountant his representatives, shall forthwith pay over any balance of public money then due to the public in respect of such charge to the public officer authorised to receive the same; and in all cases in which it shall appear to the Comptroller and Auditor General that balances of public money have been improperly and unnecessarily retained by an accountant, he shall report the circumstances of such cases to the Treasury ; and the Treasury shall take such measures as to them may seem: expedient for recovering by legal process, or by other lawful ways and means, the amount of such balance or balances-, together with interest thereon, upon the whole or part of such balance or balances, for such period of time and at: such rate, not exceeding five pounds per centum per annum, as to the Treasury may appear just and reasonable.