The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-05-20
MAKES CHARGES OF FRAUD
Says FavoriteS Were Paid for
 Doing No Work.
The Postmaster Generals Statements are Ridiculed by the Deposed Employe of the Washington
 City Postoface.

Washington, May 1s.--Ex-cashier Tul- ioch of the Washington city postoffice was in Washington today and tn an in- tervdew said:
 T notice Mir. Payne observes that I cauld know nothing more about the postal service in Porto Rico than about the postal service in Chicago. Perhaps MT. the Washington city postoffice. no past master there could even secure a box of matches that did not pay for. Money for the salaries of the postmasters. clerks, for every office in the island passed through my hands and the postmaster of Washington city was responsible on his bond for the proper disbursement of 1t.
 Not only was I the cashier for every postoffice in Porto Rico. but I was also auditor of the accounts, which I had to watch carefully. lest some emrloye might double up on me was required to look out that there wore no d,ub.e pay ments, either for sedvices or materials that not more than one building in any town or city was rented for a postoflice, and scores of other things. Often these vouchers were not in satisfactory shape and had to be returned, not once or twice but thrice. and corrected.
 Check on Supplies.
 T acted likewise in a third capacity, in keeping accounts for the supplies sent 10 every office In Porto Rico A postmaster, for instance, whose bond was s2,5OO, might be furnished s2.500 worth of stamps and other postal materials on going to the island. This sum of money was turned over and over again. He would send me cash. which he had realized on these materials or vouchers for expenditures as the case might be. afsd had to send him still further supplies. always watching out that the amount entrusted to his care did not exceed the amount of his bond.
 ''If I did not know more about Porto Rico postal affairs than. about the postal affairs in Chicago l was not fit to be cashier. That's all there is to it,
 Touching the question of expenses for individuals which auditing officers refused to pass, Mir. Tulloch said:
 'T know that in some cases where these men came in with expenses the account ing officers of the treasury would not pass very ingenious scehme was devised to help them out. By direction of First
 
 names of these employees would he order ed kept on the pay rolls for a time, long enough to make sufficient money in salary to equal the tabooed accounts. know in one case a favorite had come back to Washington and his name had been drop ped from the rolls. He had been draw ing pay at the rate of $1,200 a year, but 1t was found that some of his expenses would not pass the auditing officers Forthwith an order came to me, put him on the rolls at $1, 400. He performed no additional work, but was paid salary till deficiency was made up. In other words the government was made to pay itself"
 Capt. Henry A Castle, auditor of the Postoffice Deua : ment, today gave out a statement in reply to charges made against his office by former Cashier 5. W. Tulloch of the Washington City post office. Captain Castle says:
 T have not yet received the Postmas- ter Generals letter transmitting abstracts of MT. Tulloch's complaints referring to this office. have had special satisfaction in the record of this bureau in settling the accounts of the Spanish war period. We now have 500 employees of whom more than four hundred are themselves au- ditors. settling an average of more than two thousand accounts every working day I seldom see any of these accounts but l did carefully review their work which involved the Spanish war episodes and I assumed the responsibility for the settlement as finally made.
 Says Tulloch is Reckless.
 Under a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States accounting officers are not judges of the necessity or the ex- travagance of any expenditures. They are only concerned with it's legality under some available appropriation and the suf- ficiency of the vouchers Some of MT. Tullochs statements are reckless and oth- CTS absurdly false. The comptroller never disallowed 00O that had been approved by this office. My recollection now is that less than S1.000 finally was disapproved.
 Postmaster General Payne today said that he had not communicated with for mer Assistant Postmaster General Heath but that he would do so later on. h con nection with the charges of violations of the civil service law. Mir. Payne called attention to the appropriation of s3OO, 900 made by Congress for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1900. By it's items he said the expenditure of that appropriation for mail services of various kinds necessi- tated by the acquisition of insular pos sessions was vested In the discretion of the Postmaster General without regard