The herald., 1893-09-12
In the County Auditor and
Treasurer's Books.
Mrs. Fowler Makes Several valuable
Suggestions.
She Outlines the Many Mistakes She
Detected in the Books The
Way They Should Be
Corrected.


tho following:
An examination OF all the books OF
the auditor has been made, with the
exception of those relating to the tax
collector and assessor, which will be
taken up in connection with the exam
ination of those offices. As far as can
be discovered, the books OF the auditor
end treasurer have never been brought
into exact balance with each other, as
there has been no account kept of the
outstanding warrants against the differ
ent funds, which is the only way OF
keeping check on the two sets OF books.
Had this been done, errors which have
not been discovered for months
after they were made would have
been found and corrected as soon as the
balances from the two sets OF books had
been compared by taking into account
the outstanding warrants, as the bal
ances OF the auditors funds should be
just the amount of the unpaid warrants
less those of the treasurer. 1t has
taken long time to reconcile the two
sets of accounts as in the larger funds
the warrants have had to be traced back
from month to month, taking into ac-
count all unpaid or cancelled warrants
at the first of each month for two years
back to July l, 1891, as before that time
any warrant outstanding would be void.
While number Of errors have been
found accounting for part OF the differ
ences in the larger accounts there are
still differences which will have to be
closed out as the errors causing them oc-
Cured before Juiy. 1891.
Thus we have, as per statement of the
different funds, deficiencies unaccounted
for as follows:
July /, 1891: Salary fund. auditors
balances more than treasurer's, $6S. So /;
general school fund, auditors balance
less than treasurer's, $5930; hospital
fund, auditors balance more than treaH-
urer's, $62.55; general road fund, treas
urer's balance more than auditors,
$149.40; current expense fund, auditors q
balance more than treasurer's, $104 2l.
The rest OF the differences have been
traced out in the outstanding warrants
and errors. The warrants are listed on
the statement and the errors are as fol-
lows:
In the law library fund an error of .01
made in treasurer books in October,
1892, by entering a warrant for $6.76 aH
So rs; overlooked by grand jury expert.
In general school fund, errors in foot.
ing of auditors books, May. 1893, .03 4;
November. 1892, 81; June, 1893, war
rant for $S6 80 entered by auditor as
1896, should be IS. .93.
Court house and county Jail fund, err
ror in registering warrant on auditors
books s2060.50 as $1,000. sso-
On salary fund the following war
rants we're drawn, but charged to cur.
rent expense.: u Octp Der, 1882, No. 1920,
for $75.75; May, 1899 No. A420, for
$26. go June, 1892; No. 476S,a for 1.S5; !;
July, 1891, No. 6763, for $3.50; March,
1892, No. s23U0, entered, on treasurer'a
books $40. .80--Hhouldsb be $40. SO.
These errors were ALI in the work
gone over, by the grand jury experts:
Hospital fund-Errorin footing audi
tors warrant register, March, 1898, $100 I;
also June, 1893, error in footing same
book, 500; error in June, 1898, warrant
for $40, drawn on current expense fund,
charged to hospital fund. The last two
errors have been corrected since July l.,
1898. In April, 1892, warrant for $40,
drawn on current expense fund, was
charged to hospital fund; also over
AhOhCd Ny ohC 6AnAa JhAt "a POAtos
The current expense fund has, of
course, tho above-named warrants
charged erroneously to salary and hos
pital funds. Also error in July, 1891, in
entering warrant No. 6529 on auditor q
register as $25.45, which should be
$25. 40; error in entering warrant No.
55I6, June, 1898, on auditors warrant
register as $27.75, which should be
$29. .75; in entering warrant No. 1884 for
$40, June, 1893, in hospital fund which
should have been in current expense.
These last two errors were corrected
since July, 1893.
In regard to errors in auditors war
rant register, suggestion might be
made that il the items not on the super
visors' allowance sheets were separate
from the allowances, the allowance
sheet should be footed and the warrant
register proved with it, thus detecting
the errors during the month in which
they were made instead of weeks or
months afterwards.
How can statements be correct with
such errors in the books?
One of the chief difficulties in tracing
the balance back through the two years,
was to make allowances for the errors
Al bObA rOtb VI DOOhb COAIOtbcu lOuk dlb6I
they were made. If the unpaid war
rants were listed and checked each
month, dropping out those paid OF
cancelled and adding those outstanding,
the exact difference that then should be
between the two sets of books could be
determined without any trouble. 1t
would seem though that the time
would be more satisfactorily spent in
keeping trace of these warrants than in
keeping the fund book, which is simply
copy OF the treasurer's book and nc
check on his work, as the errors named
above would have been discovered had
they not been in the fund book also, az
were the errors named in the report on
treasurer's books.
In drawing the warrants great many
OF them are scratched and altered from
what was originally on them, and there
is often difference between the amount
| on the stub and on the warrant, which
will account for some of the small diff.
ferences between the auditors and
treaeuref's books.
In going through the books it has
been noticed that while the apportion.
mentH appear on the auditors books in
one month, they oftentimes do not ap.
pear on the treasurer's books until the
next month or even later. This waE
more noticeable before the 1st OF Janu'
ary, 1898.
The work of apportioning the funds tc
see II IL hes been dcne correctly se.iy has NJ
been taken up for lack OF time at pres.
kxx&