ABSTRACT
The proposal to open the financial records of the universities to inspection by parliament's watch-dog, the comptroller and auditor general, has had a mixed reception in academic circles. Formally, the committee reports to the House of Commons; but, although there is now an annual provision of parliamentary time for debates on the reports of the two main financial committees (the other being the estimates committee), it is comparatively rare for much interest to be displayed on the floor of the House in the P.A.C.'s work. Parliament was then getting very hot under the collar about its lack of independent information on the affairs of the nationalized industries (whose protection from parliamentary ‘interference’ was of the course justified by reference to commercial as distinct from academic considerations). The committee, in fact, has played a protective as well as a critical role.
