The Hawaiian gazette., 1915-04-20
For First Time IN Honolulu His
tory Taxpayers Can Really
Get information
BOOKS CENTRALIZED AND
SCIENTIFICALLY ANALYzED
auditors Office Completes GEN
eral Reorganization After
Six Weeks Work

For the first time In its history, the
city Of Honolulu is now on a business
basis. A citizen who WALKS into the
auditors Office wishing 70 know what
share Of the public moneys has been
expended on any given Improvement or
BY any given department can get an
answer-instant and accurate.
Or II he is a merchant, curious To-
know how much Of the city's business
| he Is getting and how much - going
| To his rival, there are the figures. He
has always had right 10 see them,
| but the opportunity is now his for
| the hrst time.
For the past six weeks or moro
| James Bieknell, the city auditor, has
been putting new accounting system
| into effect, and he has now progressed
| 50 far that yesterday he was able to
saw that ID Is in working order. The
city now does business like bank.
At the close Of each day Its books bal
ance, and there Is showing for every
penny expended. sa.s. n
NO System heretofore
Under the old regime, II 1t were de-
sired to know, for instance, how much
money the city was paying for auto
mobiles, no immediate answer was pos
sible. Each department. was a little
4 kingdom unto itself, with its own syf
| TEN Of accounts and its own books.
| After a week Of laborious investigation
an approximation was possible, but
there was no very definite assurance
that Il was correct. The waste Of labor
and the confusion were disheartening,
hut in previous administrations II has
been impossible to stir up enough In
Il tefest in the matter to get anything
done, though it lay within the poWer
Of the mayor to make such administers
] tive changes for the public veal as he
deemed wise.
Early this year the auditors Office
determined to dola little Innocent poll
tics on its own account. James w
Il Lloyd, deputy city auditor, arranged
Y thai, ne should 3D. % kbd for ~ pfede
termined piece Of information before
the board Of supervisors. The question
was asked He answered calmly thai
he did not know. More than that, h
exposed the appalling depths Of bi
official ignorance and the little hkeli
hood that, under the then system o
bookkeeping, he ever would or coul,
know, this side the millennium.
Reorganization Begins 4.
n The supervisors were virtpously In
dignant. They began to explode i
questions and exclamation points lik
la packet of freerackers. Then aros
Deputy Lloyd's confederate on III
, board and explained, not only tina
I Auditor Bicknell was conducting hi
!, Office strictly according to statute, bu
4 to the best Of any mans ability unde
the system imposed on him. A II
\ organization began the next day.
All the city accounts are now Ger
tralized in one office. Vouchers an
4 lwarraRts have been simplihed an
classified, so that they now show o
< their face at u glance the source an
y authority for their issue, the amour
] paid, and to whom and for wha
g Stacked up In the ofiice safe are hun
dreds Of old unclaimed vouchers, nsl
. ally for small amounts, TO the ords
J. of some poor laborer, who In tryin
z to collect his wages became hopelessl
5 en- tangled in the snarl Of red tape an
Q gave up the effort in despair, MOI
. eloquently than anything else thol
J. bundles Of dusty papers tell the to
}. and puzzlemeut wasted under the o.
81 inefficient system, s q. Y.
i, Vouchers Issued Promptly
There il no more OF that now.
o city Iaborer who works on Ave or q
}, odd jobs in the course Of a fortnigl
d no longer struggles from departure
(. to department, collecting little colort
II slips Of paper here and there. His a
count with the city Is followed throul
r his work from day to day, and b
Il voucher is handed out, TO him prompu
e complete ON one sheet,
"a In short, the essence Of the refor
i, is that accounts have been centraliz,
d and analysed. On the old running q
y counts there often stood tens Of tho
q sands OF dollars loosely. fumbled ,
"a into one item Of ineidentals or sundri,
q All that has been done away with.
4 the mayor or supervisors wish 70 Al
out what proportion of q given job
\. been spent on permanent improvement
what on operation and labor, what
a upkeep and what on overhead, the da
4, Is. ready on demand,