High Finance.
Chugalug and Smudge,
Our Tea Swindle was really a small Canteen. Run by unit volunteers in a Laing hut behind our HQ, it had been running for 2-3 years. We opened it during the training periods, which were 1900/2100 on Thursday nights and all day Saturdays and Sundays. Besides our own troops, a lot of the Regiment auxiliaries came over (but I think 608 had a place of their own).
You'll remember that one of the first things I did was to get a grip of the finances of this operation, which if properly run can be very profitable indeed, as we had no overheads. We did not make much on the cakes, buns and scones, and it is difficult now to remember what we would be paying for tea, milk and sugar in those days, but roughly 4/- worth of makings should have turned into £2 over the counter (at 2d a cup).
Of course we couldn't do cigarettes or alcohol, they were reserved to the NAAFI. They tolerated us as their trade was all in the evenings, when the Auxiliaries had all gone home.
In addition to this main source of income, there had been windfalls like the highly successful (and criminal) Christmas Card racket in '51 to start things off. TAAFA did not charge any fee for the Band's outside engagements, being content with its value as a recruiting tool (which itmost certainly was): the members got a small increment in pay as Bandswomen. But of course we expected (and got) a contribution for "expenses" (what expenses ?), and even after a suitable contribution to the RAFBF, the Tea Swindle (aka Unit Fund) got its fair share. One way and another it mounted up over the years, as we never really found anything much to spend it on.
Why wasn't the Mace insured ?.....Touché !.....Oh, dear...D.
BEagle,
They seemed to have refined the torture over the years. At the beginning, the Accountant Officers didn't want to know about these unofficial non-Public funds, on the basis that what they weren't involved in couldn't hurt them. Towards the end of '54, the A.M. sent out a posse of itinerant auditors. (I think certain Territorial Adjutants, who are almost completely autonomous, had been found with their fingers deep in the till), and they feared that the infection might have extended to the R.Aux.A.F.
Accordingly a very suspicious individual with a bulky briefcase appeared in my office one day, demanding an account of my stewardship. But our system (set up two years previously by F/O Tom Oliver of some bank or other) was absolutely copper-bottomed. A complete set of books and Annual Accounts was shoved under this auditor's nose to baffle him. We got a Bank Statement and did a Reconciliation.
As Tom took the weekend takings away every Sunday night to bank them on Monday, there was very little in the cash box. But of course there was also a small cash bag at the back of the safe, because there is always some surplus which can't be accounted for when all the dust has settled. Unlike your Inquisitor, ours said that that was evidence of our probity. Apparently, if the books are too perfect, they smell a rat !...D.
No computers ? Ah, happy days !
Danny.