Middletown transcript., 1902-10-25
OUR ROAD AUDITORS

OUR ROAD AUDITORS
In spite of all the legislation
of recent years looking to SIM
plification Of the methods of
keeping our road accounts, it
scenes that every year the audi
tors find more looseness and
complication. We now have in
this county two separate audits,
one by the two auditors named
by Judge Spruance who examine
the accounts of all the Road
Commissioners and one by two
auditors in each Hundred who
merely pass upon the accounts
of their locality. The two audi
tors named by Judge Spruance
have just submitted their annual
report and it is discouraging to
find that the conditions prevail
ing in the county do not show any
Improvement. Large sums of
money are annually distributed
and no system prevails in the ex-
penditure norm the bookkeeping
The auditors say:
Large amounts of the public
funds are drawn by checks to
the order Of individual commits
sioners, many checks are made
payable to bearer and are re-
turned from the bank bearing
the endorsement Of some one of
the commissioners. Seventy
five per cent, of the receipted
vouchers in Christiana hundred
are evidently signed by the com
missioners of that hundred in
stead of by persons to whom pay
ment was due. While we have
no means of ascertaining whether
these amounts were properly ap-
piled or not, the manner Of their
disbursement is certainly open
to criticism.
"In disregard of the act passed
at the last session of the Legis-
lature, XXII, Laws of Delaware,
chapter 107) which requires the
Road Commissioners "to keep an
itemized account of all receipts
and expenditures of money, and
the purposes for which all mon
eys were expended: and pre-
scribes severe penalties for the
neglect of this duty, the books
kept are in many cases merely
memoranda of the cash receipts
and expenditures, more or less
accurate, and possible only of
verifcation by the accounts kept
by the various banks of deposit.
They give no idea whatever of
the financial conditions of the
different hundreds.
OF course, even under the
present laws it would be, and
should be possible for the com
missioners in each hundred to |
keep their records in such a man
ner as to show to the taxpayers
where each dollar that they re-
ceive goes and what value is re-
ceived in return. But what is |
needed more than any other thing |
is a complete and radical change
in our road system. In the first
place it is entirely wrong that
the hundred should be compelled
to pay eight per cent. for the col
lection of the road taxes. The
collectors of taxes each and all
receive a salary of from $500 to
$1,000 per year and this should be
sufficient for the work done. In
addition to this they have been
receiving from $500 to $500 for
collecting road taxes. If this
were extra work there might be
some reason for it, but the total
tax of each individual is collected
at one time and no other entries
are made or needed. This change
alone would save the taxpayers
of this county about 81, 1000 an
In the second place, provision
should be made to have the road
work managed as the county
work is done under the present
Levy Court. Many other changes
could be made, but the new law
should be carefully considered.
The next Legislature should
provide for a commission to in.
quire into the systems prevail
ing in other states particularly
those who like New York, New
Jersey and. Massachusetts, have
adopted modern methods Of road
and supervision.
[ COMMUNICATED