| Show REPORT ON COUNTY AUDIT OUT RUMORS MRS OF dishonesty groundless the report of the recent audit of the books of the county is now on file in n the county clerks office whore where it may be examined by any one desiring to do so the ile report is too lengthy for us to print in full as a news article so we have selected excepts with a view of giving our readers a fair understanding of the findings of the audit in justice to all we feel that we should mention that none mono of the irregularities nor over allowances bear the slightest slig hest mark of criminal intent the fact is it is surprising that there were no more clerical errors than appear when one takes into consideration tho the volume of bu business bushiness transacted in the count county yin in the course of the three and one half he J lif years As to over alloN allowances vances when the facts are brought out we believe these thee too will be justified at least in a measure for instance we understand in the case of E ex x ca commissioner miss toner bush he was virtually acting as deputy road agent for rush valley in particular and the services of himself and ana the use of his car were required a great portion of the time in addi tion to his duties as county commissioners ners and much of the extra expense allowed him was for this reason wo we understand a similar condition was true in the case of ray hammond ex county assessor it appears mr hammond was acting as deputy sheriff his principal duty iq in that capacity was to collect grazing license from stock owners residing outside the state and grazing their hords herds a portion of the tha time in tooele thoele county to us a most notable feature of the report is the statement in substance that in the of the tax rolls no mistakes whatsoever were found in the figures of special deputy ajax for an individual to handle perhaps tens of thousands of entries annually without a single error is truly remarkable and wo we question whether such a record has ever been paralleled it certainly has never been surpassed tho the audit covers a period of three and one halt half years commencing on january 1 1919 and ending june 30 1022 1922 the tha following are excerpts of the results and comments on the audit in january 1919 and during 1920 the dates being shown in exhibit A the county commissioners authorized additional compensation to county officers as follows ray hammond assessor W frank atkin recorder these payments were illegal and should be paid back to the county is the opinion of the auditors in schedule 1 we present a list of expenditures by commissioners who have exceeded this their expense account amount as follows commissioner R N bush commissioner 0 H barrus commissioner P C gillett A provision of law granting mileage at the rate of twenty cents per mile in going only from residence to courthouse is included in this section and accounts for the excess of commissioner gillett in schedule 2 wo we show a statement which reveals a balance of due the county from geo L tate ex county treasurer which we believe is self explanatory in practically all of these instances the shortages are not in in our opinion the result of dishonesty but in sonic cases mere oversights ard and t in others other 3 I 1 carelessness and also unfamiliarity with regard to the statutes covering the conditions in question A comment on the work of each department part ment by the auditors is as follows COUNTY TREASURER we feel fed that in this office there is an absolute necessity for a new system of accounting on the double entry basis and thus afford a means whereby a monthly balance of accounts can bo be prepared F from rom our observation this office has never been able to present in balance sheet form tho the condition of money on hand and due and various carious funds to which it is payable COUNTY CLERK we found the books and records in TO this office to bo be thoroughly up to date and being kept in a neat and accurate condition however the same need for a double entry system of bookkeeping is apparent here as in tho the trea treasurers Treasur reals ers department COUNTY RECORDER the financial records of this de apartment part ment were found to be in the iho best of condition and thoroughly up to date no discrepancies were discovered and monthly reports had been regularly and systematically filed with the treasurer COUNTY SHERIFF it is 13 very evident to us that in thi this s office during 1919 and 1920 ex expenses were incurred and carelessness is apparent in the keeping of the records during that same period A comparison of expenses of this department for the last three years is shown in exhibit A and reveals a decided improvement in the last year TAX ROLLS we feel that mention should be made of the accuracy and extreme care fullness apparent in the preparation of the county tax rolls wo we audited these in detail for tho the three years period and found no errors of any kind in footings extensions or apportionment of funds this covers P vast amount of work and credit is duo due special deputy ajax the foregoing audit was made by beesly reeves co certified public accountants of salt lake city |
