Catalogue description Records of the Accountant-General's Department of the Commonwealth Relations Office

Responsibility for financial matters in the Commonwealth Relations Office was held from its creation in 1947 by the Accountant-General's Department, which from 1950 when the Office was first organised into divisions formed part of the Finance and General Division. The Department was responsible for such matters as the administration of memorial and endowment funds and pension schemes and claims as well as general financial administration and relations with the Treasury.

In 1951 the Department was split into two branches, branch I dealing with general financial administration including pensions matters, and branch II with financial policy. Branch II remained part of the Finance and General Division, while branch I was made part of the Establishment and Organization Division.

From 1955, schemes in certain territories begun under the Colonial Development and Welfare Act 1940 were transferred to the Office from the Colonial Office. These were administered by the Accountant-General's Department, which was reunited as a single department under the joint control of the Finance and General and the Establishment and Organization Divisions. In 1956 the Finance and General Division was abolished and the department was moved entirely into the Establishment and Organization Division.

Following the Plowden Report of February 1964 (Cmnd. 2276), which recommended that Britain's three overseas services (the Commonwealth Service, the Foreign Service and the Trade Commission Service), should be unified, a single Service, entitled Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service, was established in January 1965. The Diplomatic Service Administration Office was set up to handle all the financial and common administrative matters of the Diplomatic Service, and as a result the Accountant-General's Department was abolished. Financial matters of the Commonwealth Relations Office were henceforth handled by the Finance Department of the Diplomatic Service Administration Office, while the remaining functions under the Colonial Development and Welfare Act and financial policy for the Commonwealth passed to a newly created Development and Financial Policy and West African Economic Department in the Aid Division.