The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1910-07-05
CLOSE GATES ON
PETTY GRAFTERs
State Board Of Accounting
Adopts System to Do Away
With Fake Bidding.
NEW PLAN ECONOMICAL

PllGs MAY FIGURE ON THE
WHOLE, OR ANY PART OF
TIE LIST.
(Palladium Specially
indianapolis, July 5.-One OF the
most important pieces OF work yet
done by the state accounting board In
the interest of economy and honesty
In the handling OF the peoples money
in Indiana. has Just been completed
by the issuance of new set OF blanks
for the use OF public officials In re-
ceiving bids on supplies. The new ar
rangement IL almost certain to make
Il impossible for any public official to
do any grating in the purchase OF
supplies, and II this Is accomplished
Il will be Q great step forward In pub.
lic affairs.
One OF the blanks IL for the use OF
township trustees in receiving bids on
school supplies. Under the old method
of receiving such bids there was no
publicity about them. and II the trus-
tee wished to keep them secret he
could easily find q way to do so. Thus
no one could ever tell whether the
price purported to have been paid for
supplies was the real price paid or
not.
Another bad feature Of the old sys-
tenn was that In asking for bids on
supplies the trustee made q complete
list Of Ill supplies needed and then
required each bidder to bid on the en-
tire lot. The bidder was not permit
ted to bid on . certain part OF the
whole list He had to bid either on
all or none Of the supplies. The re-
suit was that bids were manipulated
many times In such manner as to
make the total bid appear low while
In reality It was high. A bidder who
had Q special advantage on q certain
article would bid . low price on that
one article and would then stick on a
high price for Q number Of other arti.
Giles which he alone could furnish. In
this way he would make big profits on
the latter articles and would make a
small profit on the first named arti-
cles. And 1t always happened that of
the articles on which he made large
profit q large quantity would be re-
quircd. while on the article on which
he had quoted q low price only small
quantity would be ordered.
stops Crooked Practices.
Thus 1t was that crookedness ap-
pcared In many of the contracts for
supplies. and 1t was to make q con-
tinuance Of this practice impossible
that the state board Of accounts pre-
pared the new blanks for the use of
bidders. In the new blanks all of the
articles on which bids are asked are
classified In groups. and any bidder
may bid on the entire list OF supplies
or no may bid on any group.
For instance. in the blank used In
asking for bids for school supplies
the supplies are classified into groups
~ follows: Bells; blackboards. cray
ons and blackboard supplies: diction
aries and books Of reference; literary
books: paper and stationers sundries
books and stationery forms: floor oil
brooms. brushes. mats, ETC.: labora
tory tables. cases. etc.; furniture. lee
turs or assembly room seats: library
and wall furniture; equipment fol
manual training: bench tools: princi
pals rool top desks and chairs: furni
ture-students' desks; teachers desks
tables and chairs: kindergarten ma
terial: maps. charts, globes. etc.
school wagons; stoves: toilet articles
window shades and guards; scientifi,
: apparatus; physical and chemical ap
paratus. class material.
Under each of these heads Is LISTED
al Of the supplies that may be regard
ed AZ belonging to that class.
Sent 70 Trustees.
Tho state board Of accounts ha'
sent . sufficient number Of copies O
these blanks to each township trus
tee In the state to enable the truste,
TO keep one copy on file In his offic,
and to send another copy to the offic,
Of the accounting board. This 10 re
auired because the board wishes I,
have In its own office the list Of arti
cles advertised for and the bids re
ceived and the prices paid, SO tina
when field examiners examine the nc
counts OF trustee they may verify Il
the boards office the prices paid 70
the supplies NJ shown by the book
f. and papers In the trustees office.
The examiners have In a large mum
Der OF instances found discrepencie
In supply accounts in the offices O
township trustees. In numerous In
stances II has been found that fame
prices were paid for supplies whic1
were sold IN other townships in tn
state at much lower prices. In sue