The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-09-04
The Corruptions OF the Reform City
Governmental Startling Revelation.

The Corruptions OF the REFORM City
Governmental Startling Revelation.
The revelations made by the Commissioners
of Accounts in their report of the condition
and management of the Department of Chart
ties and Correction add an interesting chapter
to the history of municipal reform as illus
trated in Mayor Havemeyers administration.
In January last, when the examination of
the Department of Charities and Correction
was commenced, none of the books were
written up for the old year, and the cash
book had been left without any entry for
seven months, or since the ''reform"
Commissioners nominally entered upon
the discharge of their duties. The Com
missioners knew absolutely nothing about
their accounts, and their bookkeeper, with a
salary of three thousand dollars a year, ex-
planned his neglect OF the books by the state
ment that it was useless to write them up since
be could not make o balance sheet to agree
with the books Of the Finance Department.
Commissioners Laimbeer and Stern asked for
time to have their books posted, and the ex-
animation was not resumed until the following
May. 1t was then found still impossible to
balance the books. No inventory of the stock
or property on hand had been taken when the
present Commissioners assumed Office, and
the value of the dry goods and other
supplies was unknown Not a single
safeguard against fraud and robbery seems
to have been provided by the heads
of the department. No accounts are kept with
the various parties from whom purchases are
made for the use Of the department. The sys-
tenn requires that the storekeeper at Black
we'll Island shall make all acquisitions and
receive, receipt for and issue all supplies. In
stead of this being done dry goods, -four and
other articles are purchased by the Commits
sioners at their will, are sent wherever they
please, and all the storekeeper knows of the
transaction is when the bills are received by
him tor entry on his books. Thus, while
thousands of barrels of flour go directly
to the bakery, before the investigation
commenced no record whatever was
kept there to show the amount that
had been received Thus far gross official
neglect and incompetency are proved against
the Commissioners of Charities and Correc-
ton. But graver charges remain. It is shown
that they not only pay no regard to the limi-
tation of the charter which provides that no
purchase of supplies involving more than one
thousand dollars expenditure shall be made
for the corporation by any department or
officer Of the city government except by con-
tract founded on sealed bids or proposals and
given to the lowest bidder, but that they con-
tinuously alter and falsify their books and
bills, with the wilful object of evading the
law and concealing its previous violations
Goods are illegally purchased by the Commits
sioners to the amounts Of thousands of dol
lars, ore delivered by the sellers and the
invoices received in duplicate, entered and
forwarded to the general Office of the depart
ment. Subsequently the original invoices are
destroyed, false bills for amounts never de-
ivered and bearing different dates are substi-
tuted, the original entries are erased from the
books of the department, fraudulent entries
corresponding with the false bills are made in
their place, and the altered bills, thus brought
within the amount prescribed by the charter,
are paid by the Finance Department. So
been that, in the words of the report, cit is
not possible to make up true and correct
statement as to goods actually furnished to
the department and the dates upon which he
same were received.
Grave as are the charges thus brought against
the Commissioners of Charities and Correc.
ton and the Comptroller, the report, as we
have said, only raises the corner of the cur
tain and affords'u but glimpse of the cor
ruption of the tainted department. 1t leaves
untouched the Justification of the census. It
does not state the enormous quantity of meat
and -four consumed or pretended to be con.
sumed by the department during the year, ex-
cept by incidentally mentioning the payment
of $95, sos for fresh meat for little over seven
months, which, at six cents O pound and
allowing fresh beef four days in the week,
shows o consumption of 1855 pounds
of fresh meat per day. 1t says nothing of
the quality of the -four or of the prices paid,
which are from two to three dollars o barrel
more than equal brands cost on the market.
1t leaves untouched the rumor that the butter
supplied to the department has been some
times too rank for use 1t is silent on the SUBJ
ject of horses purchased and paid for but not to
be traced, or Of the extravagant expenditures of
the department on stables and steamboats,.
Yet the glance it affords of the illegal acts of
the Commissioners of Charities and Correc-
ton and of the singular course of the
Finance Department is enough to astonish
the community. The report puts n
new feature on the charges against Mayor
Havemeyer. The transparent frauds
alleged to have been perpetrated in regard to
the Sternbach dry goods bills expose the in
suficiency and deceptive character of the
Mayors pretended Investigation" of those