The Mena weekly star., 1917-09-13
AInTrOR's REPORT.

To the Mayor and City Council of
 the City of Mena, Arkansas
 Sometime ago was notified that l had been requested by you to make an audit of the books of the several city officers of Mena. As to what period 0f time this audit should cover 1 was not directed but the matter seems rather to have been left Co my discretion. In order to get definite starting point and that my audit might cover definite period, and that the information which ] might furnish should be of the greatest practical value Go you, have begun my examination wlth the records based upon the pro- ceedings of the first meeting of the city council in April. 1915, and have covered the period of two years fol- lowing lhat date, or until the first meeting of the council in i9i7
 find. in the first place. that there is not q sufficient system of checks and balances in use among the sew eral officers of the city Co make Il possible by mere inspection of the accounts. records, reports, receipts, etc. Co arrive at a definite conclu- sion as Co the correctness of any Of them except as to the accounts kept by the city treasurer For instance, it is next to impossible Co ascertain from these records just what city warrants arc outstanding The city clerk keeps a stub book showing the warrants issued by him and the treasurer keeps a record of the war rdnis received by his office A com parison of these records from the beginning of time down to now, if this were possible, would disclose whether all the warrants issued had been redeemed hy the treasur- CT, CT just which of such warrants had eeen redeemed and which were still outstanding, but this would not he possible for the reason that all the clerks stub books have not been preserved, and besides. il would be a long and tedious and impractic- able process to make such com- parison even if all such records were available It appears that from time to time the warrants re- deemed ny the city treasurer have been destroyed, but before their de- strHetion these warrants have not been listed and permanently record- cd sa as to show just what warrants have been so destroyed. Under such a system. or rather, lack of system. t would be entirely possible for warrants which have been redeemed by the treasurer to get into cireula- tion again have found no evi- .dence that anything of this kind has ever occurred, yet | say such a thing IS entirely possible Owing to the State or these records. or lack of records. have not made any effort ! to ascertain the true status of the eitys tlnaneia condition
 In this connection I would recom- mend that system of registration of warrants be inaugurated by the city similar to that now in use by the counties of this state. Under this system numerical register of warrants issued is kept in a per- manent book and annually when the warrants redeemed ny the treas urer are destroyed a notation of the destruction of each warrant is made upon this book opposite the record of ifs issue. By an inspection of this record the number and amount of outstanding warrants may easily he ascertained at any time
 have examined the accounts kept by Inc treasurer and have compared the entries made in his books with the stubs of receipts which he has issued during the period covered ny my examination and l have found his books neatly and accurately kept l have compared these also with the reports made by the treas urer Co the city council as recorded upon the minutes of the proceed ingS If the council, and while have