Except as otherwise provided in this act, departmental administrative bodies, boards, and commissions, within the several administrative departments, shall exercise their powers and perform their duties independently of the heads or any other officers of the respective administrative departments with which they are connected, but, in all matters involving the expenditure of money, all such departmental administrative boards and commissions shall be subject and responsible to the departments with which they are respectively connected. Such departments shall, in all cases, have the right to make such examinations of the books, records, and accounts of their respective departmental administrative boards and commissions, as may be necessary to enable them to pass upon the necessity and propriety of any expenditure or proposed expenditure.