Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1915-07-15
Investigators Declare Ac- counts of Moose's Office
 in Awful Shape.
CHARGE SHORTAGE
 DESPITE SURPLUS
Committee Says Official Admits Hav- ing More in One Fund Than He Can Account For, While in Another
 There Is Apparent Deficit.

Little Rock, July 14.--The long-ex- pectcd report of tho special investl- gating committee on the office of the attcrney-general was made public this evening. It is signed by Sena- tor George w. Garrett and Repres sen tatives Monroe Smith and U. A. Gen. try. Their conclusions are as 1ol- lows:
 "We find that the attorney-Gen- eral has kept very inadequate rec ords of money received and paid into the state treasury;
 "That he has used the Southern Trust company as sub-treasury or epository for most of the funds that have come into his possession and checked them out indiscriminately with bank checks in face of the statute against his depositing tue money or the bank receiving it.
 "That he has dealt in statGe war rants;
 '"rhat he has dealt in state var counsel at a cost of more than $7,0O0 in one instance, when he could have dcne the work himself in less than seven hours and saved this amount to the tax payers;
 l "1hat while he was employing special counsel he was doing private practice;
 "That he failed to comply with the law in itemizing his inheritance tax collections in the biennial report.r l Not Bonded Officer. | +hnA f1n hn
 attorney-gcneral is not bonded of- ficer, he collects from $75,0O0 to $100,O00 annually, "and instead of re- hitting this direct to the treasury, as
 he is commanded by law to do, it
 has been his custom to deposit the l greater portion of these collections
 in the southern Trust company, and
 keep it there for many, many months,
 dribbling into the treasury what he has not checked to other sources on various and sundry personal checks. The greater portion of this money IS collected in inheritance and franchise taxes. Keeping no record of the money, when he receives it., or the. names of the individuals by whom It is paid, and waiting so long to pay
 it into the treasury, the result Is that
 he forgets the names of many of the lestates from which he has collected inheritance taxes and Our accOun- tants found in their efforts to balance his accounts that he had $2,236.96 in the Southern Trust company more than he could account for. When thfs
 fact was discovered, the attorney general came to this committee and
 suggested that as he had more money than he knew what to do with, he; felt that he ought not to be criticised for
 that, because, it showed, he thought,
 that he had not used any of the
 states money for his own personal benefit"
 ! It is shown that there Is balamce
 of $8,365.21 due on delinquent fran-
 chise taxes, which it is the attorney-
 generals duty to collect. "Just why
 this amount has not been collected
 We are not satisfactorily advised by
 the attorney general, and as 1t atandx Ithis amount is clear loss to tho
 state" says the committee. Up t0 June P he had paid into tho treasury inheritance tax amountina
 to $93,741.99, and from sand and gravel and other sources $42,OOO.15. "A total of $11.431.02 has been paid special counsel.
 }, Can't Account for se,Ooe. @ {, With reference to the excess of $2.- 236.06 the committee says: sThe at- ltorney-general being unable to tell what this fund should be credited to in the tressurer's office. he was un- , able to turn t over to the treasufef.
 and h. informe dus that he had placed rl Ut in the savings department of tRs ! Southern Trust company to the ac- 2 count of w. l.. Moose attorney-g gSi5s
 eral, marked Public Funds. where RI IS now drawing per cent intereat. j, We feel the attorney general des n serves the severest criticism ma
 condemnation for using the S0nther1 e Trust comnany for . denQsifory iQf r public funds. s8s s1 sssl' ssSs z z ell The committee says .lss .sss ss < ASuch a practice. 1t win certatnlf aF trom the auka a5uteQss ia4 E yfoI6 <,ltion of the criminal statafes IT IT
 state: both on the part pf fhe pub1f
 official and the henking XEU6f( {6
 Land sNhiecty them to; ' SI I1ki k%1 1( r! ] tence of not less. tAAl TIT
 lthe penitsntia HDWsig K s s "
 within oas . Af @ |S " TT @