Omaha daily bee., 1898-10-08
MEETING OF THE DIRECTORS.
UnbusinessIike ways of Keeping the
Accounts Arc RcpOrted IpOn.

Accounts Are Reported Upon.
A large portion of the regular meeting
of the Board of Directors yesterday after
noon was occupied by the consideration Of
a number of volumnous reports from the
committee on audit and revision relative to
carelessness and lack of business system in
the management of the financial affairs of
the exposition. These related chiefly to the
failure of the cashier to strike daily bal
ances as was directed by the board some
weeks ago and to the failure of the same
official to retain anything to show that
large number of vouchers and warrants had
been paid.
On the latter score Chairman Fitzpatrick
reported that the expert examination of
vouchers to August Is had showed that
there were a large number OF cases in which
no record had been made of the fact that
money had been paid except the endorse
ment on the back of the voucher that had
been retained by the treasurer for his own
protection. a number of instances were
cited. one of which referred to a voucher
| for $S.679.l5 drawn in favor of Goldie G.
Son and ceshed at the Union National bank
in November, 1897. In this case. as in the
others cited there was absolutely no record
on the books of the exposition to show that
the amount had ever been paid.
Numerous cases were also cited in which
pay checks had been cashed without exacting
a receipt or making any entry on the books
TO indicate that the employe had received
his money. The same unbusinesslike policy
prevailed in the matter of checks which
were drawn and issued while no receipt
was taken or record made beyond the en-
dorsement of the recipient on the back of
the check when he presented it for payment
at the bank
Three Cases that Are Suspicious.
Several directors suggested that these
| facts were very important and that the
| situation called for vigorous action. This
| led President Wattles to ask Mr. Fitzpatrick
! If the committee had discovered anything
| that seemed to indicate that any funds
had beer misappropriated or embezzled. Mr..
Fitzpatrick stated in explanation that nothing
OF that kind was suggested except in three
cases, in which amounts of $1569, SO. 80 and
! $lI5, respectively, had been returned to the
exposition and had not been credited to any
of the funds. This left one OF two con-
| clusions. Either the employe who received
| these sums had put them into his pocket
or the cash for the days on which they
: We're received should be over to that eX-
tent. 1t was impossible to tell whether the
latter was the case because no daily balances
had been kept.
III ielSitHCe 10 tue udly Cdsn DalaHCe
Chairman Fitzpatrick included a report from
| the special examiner who declared that the
! records of cash as kept by the cashier
showed that the cash was nearly $500 over
when he begun his investigation and was
still about $3.50 over He added that the
cashier kept an incomplete record of the
cash for various days on slips of paper
which were subsequently entered in the
books No proper cash balance had ever
been made
Continuing, he committee report referred
again to the three amounts previously cited
in which the failure TO maintain daily cash
balance made it impossible to tell whether
OF not a fraud had been committed. The