- 23 -
comments: "There is virtually no 'internal check' as accountants would
say, and internal check is not only a device to prevent fraud, it is
also a method of preventing error to which all humans are liable".)
It might however be worth taking up should the exercise be repeated.
2.5.1.4 - B2 -
Happy to continue?
This begged another question which was not asked for fear it
seem offensive - the treasurers' ages. Whilst the evidence was
insufficient to be certain, there seems to be a tendency for it to
be a retired person's job.
2.5.1.5 - B4 -
Deanery Adviser
This is an idea which has been evolving in the diocese indepen-
dently of this study and it was included here as a useful opportunity
to test reaction. Diocesan reasoning is that many treasurers face
unnecessarily complicated book-keeping systems, that an 'outside'
expert could be a help, but that he must not carry a 'diocesan' label
else he will be resented and rejected. It was thought a 'deanery'
label would circumvent the problem.
2.5.1.6. - C1 -
In favour of potential income?
and C2 Is it fair?
Potential income is an attempt to get over the problem of one
parish's presented accounts ('actual income') not being comparable
with another's (due to differing accounting practices) by substituting
for both a theoretical income. The procedure adopted to calculate
that theoretical income is standard for all parishes in the diocese
(and is expounded more fully in Appendix C) but is necessarily some-
what subjective. Since these were the two questions which came closest
to the central theme of this study it would have been valuable to
expand them into asking for detailed comments or even for alternative
proposals, but to do so would have involved an open-ended question with
