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Show Record Keeping Procedures In Utah Criticized In Utah Foundation Study Reporting and record-keeping procedures in Utah slate and local governments were sharply criticized in a study released this week by Utah Foundation, the private non-profit tax research re-search organization. Utah law requires newspaper publication of annual financial reports by local units of government. govern-ment. However, absence of state enforcement has prompted many local units to disregard this legal leg-al provision. As a result, the Foundation study reveals, it is easier to obtain information a-bout a-bout many types of private businesses bus-inesses in Utah than it is to secure se-cure information concerning the public affairs of local governments. govern-ments. Few states and local agencies attempt to prepare reports that are attractive and enlightening to the average citizen, according to the Foundation study. More emphasis has been given to a-chieving a-chieving an arithmetic balance between receipts' and expendi-. tures than to classifying and reporting information in an informative in-formative and understandable manner. The Utah Foundation study points to the absence of well-planned well-planned and well-kept accounting account-ing records as one of the chief reasons for poor governmental reports bj many agencies. Reports Re-ports can be no more informative informa-tive than the accounting system upon which they are based. Despite the general indictment against most state and local reports, re-ports, the Foundation singled out several reports for commendation. commen-dation. The 1952 reports of the Department of Health on the state level and the city of Og-den Og-den on the local level were cit-l ed as examples of good governmental govern-mental reports. Ogden published its reports for a popularized presentation. The study also dicussed the related problem of records management man-agement in Utah. A limited investigation in-vestigation by the Utah Foundation Found-ation staff shows that much valuable val-uable office space and staff time is being lost because of the failure fail-ure to adopt and implement a modern program of records management. man-agement. Through the years,, many documents and other materials mat-erials of value have been lost because of the failure to adopt and implement a modern program pro-gram of records management. Through the years, many documents docu-ments and other material of value have been lost, destroyed, or made inaccessible by this failure. Foundation analysts suggest that the state of Utah might well give consideration to making mak-ing a thorough study of reporting report-ing and records management procedures. Such studies made by qualified experts in other state and localities have reveled revel-ed that significant monetary savings are possible. Futhermore greater citizen participation in government can be achieved by adopting modern records management man-agement and reporting procedures. proced-ures. The Foundation report states that "perhaps ntf greater contribution to effective and efficient ef-ficient government could be made in Utah than improvement of reports and records which provide citizens and public officials of-ficials with the information upon up-on which intelligent policy de-I de-I cisions can be made." |