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Show LID BOARD PROBE Special Auditor Sets Forth Many Alleged Irregulari- 1 ties in Past. i i i i L "An auditor never likes to prophesy, but we believe it is safe to say that we will uncover some interesting things and many irregularities," declares Special Spe-cial Investigator L. fc. Mainor in a report submitted to State Auditor Joseph Ririe, on the investigations so far conducted tn the state land department. The report re-port was read in full at yesterday afternoon's after-noon's session of the lower house, and while no comment was made at the time it is expected that the charges contained con-tained in the report will bring up some interesting discussions when the bill asking ask-ing for an appropriation to continue the work comes up for consideration. Among the charges made by Mr. Mainor in his report, submitted to the special committee on investigation of the legislature, are - the following: That favoritism was shown in prices on certain cer-tain state lands; mishandling of the land board suspense fund; that the state holds thousands of dollars' worth of irrigation houds on which interest has not been col- I fected for years. ; Accounting System Attacked. It is charged thi'.t the system of a i counting now in vogue is "inaccurate, inadequate in-adequate and cumbersome"; that investment invest-ment securities, bonds and notes are not in any public office, but in the hands of a bank, which handles the business in connection with them, without being questioned; that r.umerous sales of state lands wore made to individuals, who re-1 re-1 inn ni shed the lands bv warranty deeds to the Utah Fuel company before full payment was made to the stafe, and patents later .f-sued to the Utah Fuel company; that in 1015 "0,000 acres of land in Millard county were sold to a party of land speculators at a price of 53.03 per acre, and that 10,000 acres ot the most worthless portion of this tract lias now reverted to the state, despite the fact tha.t another bidder agreed to take the entire tract; that many appraisements appraise-ments are inaccurate, inadequate and often were made arbitrarily without personal per-sonal inspection of the land; that by comparison with Montana, which has received re-ceived an average of $18 per acre for its state lands, as against Utah's ?2..50 per acre, Utah should have deceived $54,000,-OuO $54,000,-OuO for its lands instead of $6,500,000. Audit Delves Into History, Mr. Mainor states that the audit goes back to 1855. and takes in the administration adminis-tration of university land grants for the ensuing twenty-eight years under W. H. Seegmlller, James S. Peery and Thomas Griffin. All indications are, the auditor reports, that these men executed their trust in a most commendable manner. Also, between 1806 and 1901, the period in which the special investigators are now working, Mr, Mainor says the affairs af-fairs of the iand board seem to have been conducted in a ereditabel manner. From this period on, Mr. Mainor charges, investigations have disclosed conditions which warrant a continuation, because in his opinion there are grave irregularities. "This audit is going to be one in the strict sense of the word," says Mr. Mainor. "We are not taking their books and checking one Fct of figures against another, which is only a mechanical accounting, ac-counting, but we are tailing tho original applications aiv1 caies records, listing our own figures of the way lands should have been administered according to law fnd rules, and then if the books do not agree we will find out -why." The special auditor criticises the system sys-tem prevailing in the land board office as being v. holly inadequate. At the present pres-ent time, lie :ays. there are in th-3 office of the board between 50,000 and 60,00'"' letters unfiled, and approximately 300' applications of various kinds are pending. Under the recommendations of Mr. Mainor and State Auditor Ririe, three bills have been introduced by the special legislative committee on investigation, covering the desires of the special auditing audit-ing department. One asks for $S000 more to carry the investigation further. Another An-other directs a monthly turning over to the state treasurer of money collected by the land board, and directs the treasurer to collect all money that may be due the board. The third provides for a suspension suspen-sion of all sales of state lands until April, 1921, in irder to permit the affairs of the land department to be completely investigated inves-tigated and straightened out. The only exception to the rule would be in the case of applications for homesteads of not to exceed 1G0 acres. These could be granted If it was shown that the land was desired 'for legitimate agricultural uses. When Introducing the bills, the special investigating committee included a part of the report of Auditor Mainor, but at the request of Representative W. W. Seegmllier the full report was read yesterday. yes-terday. Mr. Seegmiller said that unless all facts so fnr discovered were presented present-ed and evidenco given that it was worth while to continue the investigation, he could not vote a further appropriation. |