The weekly soliphone. (Paragould, Greene County, Ark.) 1907-1918, 1915-06-18

could be made in this office at any
time of each and all Of the state
departments and institutions, put
as it is now this cannot be done.
''The necessity for a perfect aud
iting system as suggested is seen
in the afct that from 1911 to 1919
the university of Arkansas drew
from the state treasury S519,554
on warrants ranging from $500 up
to 100000.
eve call attention during the
the fact that one r. H. Waddell,
clerk in the auditors office, drew
duplicate. vouchers to the amount
of S244.S7 and cashed them and
appropriated this sum to his own
use This shortage was later dis
covered and refunded to the state
treasury. The only thing in con-
nection with this affair for which
Mr.. Coffman is subject to criti-
cism, is the fact that he retained
Mr.. Waddell in the employment of
the state for three months or more
after he discovered this shortage. If
the law required warrants to be
made payable to order instead of
bearer, as it should, this shortage
could never have occurred. We
find that the same Waddell is
sued warrants and collected from
the treasurer the sum totaling
$922.01. This was not a loss to
the treasury, but to the parties to
whom the money was due. We,
however, understand that this mon
ey was afterward paid by Waddell
to the parties to whom the money
belonged.
THOMAS RESIGNATION.
eve regret to report that dur
ing the last two weeks we had rea-
sons to believe that negotiations
were being carried on whereby Mr.
| Thomas, our accountant, was to
receive the money on his unpaid
vouchers by making a note with
the present auditor. M. F. Dickin-
son, and his deputy, William Stod-
dard, as security thereon, with the
vouchers as collateral, he receiving
the sum of $3.50 therefor.
Our accountant, Mr.. Thomas,
on being interviewed, admitted to
us that he had received this sum of
money, and further stated that he
had not made a complete check of
the vouchers since the 4th day of
March, 1915, to date, which was
during the incumbency of M F.
Dickinson.
'Mr. Thomas stated to the com
mittee that he signed the note and
that it was payable to Dickinson or
toddard-Stoddard. he thought
He said when he had signed the
note Stoddard paid him the mon
ey and that he had never seen the
note before he signed it, nor had
he seen it since. DR.. Dickinson
stated that he signed the note a.
security, but did not notice to
whom it was made payable, and
did not know yet. He further
stated that he thought it was a
perfectly legitimate transaction
and had no wrong motive himself
in signing the note.
I'd oNo
committee that he filled out the
note and that it was made payable
| to bearer, and that he and DR..
Dickinson signed it as security.
When this was done, he stated that
he turned the note over to Mr..
Thomas and that he did not know
what he did with it, or when and
where he got his money, and that
he (Stoddard) had never at any
time paid Mr.. Thomas any money.
I'VE Immediately dispensed with
the services of Mr.. Thomas as one
of our certified accounts, and in
Justice to the people of the state
and to the official in charge of
/ this department, we shall with
hold our report, insofar as his adj
ministration is concerned, until
further investigation can be made.
Auditing Committee on State De-
partments and Institutions,
Geo. w. Garrett, Monroe Smith.
U. A. Gentry"