St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1910-08-27

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funds, but still there we're many
opportunities offered for just
such acts.
'sG. w. BAILLIO, G. P. A.,
Accountant in Charge. .
At a special meeting Of the City
Council held on Thursday last, the
report Of The American Audit Com
pany on the examination of the books
and records of the City Of Opelousas,
for the period Of May 1st, 1904 to
May 1st,, 1910, was received. The
report is compiled in a very neat and
comprehensive manner, showing in
detail the Assets and Liabilities, May
1st, 1910, Cash Receipts, May 3rd,
1904 to May I'd, 1910; Cash Dis
bursements, May 3rd, 1904 to May
I'D, 1910; Condensed Statement of
Amounts to be Accounted For and
How Accounted For by the Tax Col
lactor, May 1st, 1904 to May lst,
1910; Condensed Statement Of Taxes
to be Accounted For and How Ac-
counted For May 1st, 1904 to May
1st, 1910; Amounts Collected and
How Accounted For by the Collector
of the Water and Light Plant, May
LIST, 1904 to May lst, 1910; with a
general review of the condition exist
ing prior to the making Of this re-
port. The total receipts for the
six years amounts to $303, ,843.8
Cash on Hand May 3rd. 1904 was
$ll, ,651, ,13; the total warrants paid
for the six years amounted to S302,-
823. q; Cash on hand May I'd, 1910.
$12,671.80 The total liabilities Of
the City Of 0pelousas is $23, 1850
this includes the Colorado So. r.
R. Tax, which is $9,392.65 and is
figured as a liability, and also in
cluded iii the Cash on Hand amount
T ing to $12, ,671. 80. This, therefore,
reduces the available cash in bank on
May I'd, 1910, to $3,279.l5. The
Excess Of Current Liabilities over
Current Assets Amounts to Sc, ,833, So.
The General Remarks" in the re-
port says: "The Treasurer's records
we're well kent and show in detail all
receipts and disbursements made by
his Office. The remaining records,
however, were incomplete and were
kept in such an incompetent and
careless manner as to render them,
in many cases, worthless.
The only records Of collections,
made By the Tax Collector, are the
stubs of the various receipts issued
by him, and a majority Of these re-
ceipts are not numbered numerically
This rendered il difficult, If not inn
possible, to correctly account for all
collections made by the Tax Gollec-
tors Office.
Schedule No. 10 (which IS the
Schedule referring to the amounts to
be accounted for and how accounted
for by Tax Collector, January 1st, to
May 1st, 1910, shows the Tax Col
Ilector failed in 1910, to account for
$135.08. This amount, together
with additional amounts which have
not been properly recorded, was col
lected and deposited subsequent to
May 1st, 1910. This furnishes one
instant Of opportunities for irregular
tiles, offered by the present system.
Eve could find no cash books for
collections made by the City Clerk
prior to March 1st, 1907, and the
cash book used by the clerk after
this date was kept in such an ineor-
rect manner as to render it useless as
| a book of original record. The Wat
er and Light Ledger for the years Of
1904, 1865 and 1906, contain many
arbitrary entries and these, together
with lack Of all subsidiary records,
rendered it impossible to verify the
accounts shown by these Iedgers.
Many of the record Of original
hand, charges for Light and Water
subsequent to 1906, are missing and
the Ledgers of 1907, 1908, 1909 and
1910 are in but little better condi-
tion than the ones preceding them.
We, however, verified these accounts
as far as the records permitted.
AS there is absolutely no record,
the correctness of which we could
verify, we were compelled to accept
the figures shown by the Treasurer's
report. This condition of the rec
ords is very unsatisfactory and offers
many opportunities for misappropria-
tion.
The record of warrants was i'd
complete and incorrect. No care
was taken in filing paid warrants and
qnise a number of them have been
lost. ALI paid warrants should be
fled so as to admit of easy reference.
No receipts for warrants were
kept and many invoices for purchases
vera lost and no records made Of
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