Norwich bulletin., 1919-12-19
C.llaIgesAgainstU.S.
 Housing Corporation
Include Inefficiency, Careless ness and a Disregard of the Provisions of the Act Under Which 1t Operated.

vsAnS1A Al 0QCt oACOs
 Washington, Dec Is. = Inefficiency, carelessness and a disregard of the provisions of the act under which it operated were charged against the United States Housing Corporation by the senate public buildings and grounds Investigating sub committee today in a report recommending that steps be taken to recover many thous- ands of dollars alleged by the sub committee to have been expended im- Iproperiy by the corporation
 Mismanagement by the corportion, the report as submitted to the senate charged. resulted in it's failure to have ready for occupancy single building until almost two months after the arn1istiee was signed, or eight months after the passage of the appropria- ] ltion act
 Although citing specific expenditures ] sufficiently grave to warrant the gov i ernnent in entering civil suits for restitution, the report expresses the opinion that in most Of these cases I the persons who profited will restore voluntarily the alleged unearned portion,
 | Other recommendations made by the
 sub committee. provide that architects. who, ii is charged, were paid excess Sively for overhead reXpenseS, be call ed upon to give the committee an ex- | act statement of the amount of their
 overhead expenditures. These en- pioyes of the corporation, the commit ] tee believes, were not parties to in- tentional violation of the law and If ithey are actuated by the patriotic principles attributed to them they will refund the sums paid them in excess | nf he 1f of nvarhpad q ' The amount the committee considers recoverable from this source is placed at s50, 1000
 Civil suit to recover s30,0o0 spent for extras" and s16,000 charged to
 sub-letting of labor by contracting firm also was recommended by the committee fll tine event of failure to return the money voluntarily. The | extras" were charged as incident to i the construction of the dormitories in Washington for women war workers, l in connection with which it was alleg- ed original estimates were radically Ialtered, indicating willingness to
 Substitute tue contractors demands 1 for the estimating divisions judg
 iment."
 Regularity of a loan for a half mill
 lion dollars made to the Springfield
 Consolidated Water Company of Phil
 fadelphia also was questioned in the
 committed report, together with
 other loans to railroads, street rail-
 ways and utility companies The lat ter concerns were not identified.
 Scruitinization of the loans by the
 itreasury department was recommend
 ed with demand for additional securi- ty where inadequate collateral hae
 been provided.
 l sr,ia ra6 ha f management were more prominent 1T
 it's report than reference to over pay 7 Iments While attention is called t ) the denials of the officials of the cor : poration that they intended to let con- , tracts for more than the appropria tioT ? act provided, the report declares the , officials had planned, according to th' records secured by the committee, th' : expenditure of s145, ,1T5,605, although , the amount of the appropriation wa! s10o 900 600. s
 : Practically all buildings erected b! l the corporation were of permanen [ character, the cemnitte reported, not l withstanding the provision that the! s be of a temporary character. Tn 6 failure Of the corporation to .produc
 a complete house until the first of tn e present year was pointed to by tn l committee as indicative of the cum . bFous nature of the organization. A !, an example of the ineficieney of tn 5 corporation, the committee cited tn custom of using triangular commls e sion comprising the architect, the en q gineer and the town planner. y Although the average price for T house had been fixed at $5;673, tn n committee declared it found houses i d Bridgeport, Conn.,, costing $7,263 eact
 Further improper expenditures wer
 declared to be the use of architects 0
 enc city in work in cities on tn }. other side of the country, the commit
 tee pointing out that travel and othe T expenses were paid for by the govern e ment.
 7, "A failure to promptly cease build c ing operations on the signing Of tn s armistice proved either desire t d complete their town beautiful eNperi 0 ments or to be helpful, at governmen expense, to the local communities in a volved,' said the report. "The Gran e tract at Bridgeport was half of on 3 per cent. completed on November . 1918. yet 1t was completed by tn
 housing corporation at a cost of S1, 3T1839. Ninetytw of these house :, were still vacant in September, 191! The Philadelphia project was only si I per cent completed on the date of tn :. signing of the armistice but was fin di ished by the housing corporation at d cost of s, 5000. These two trans \ actions cost the government not les } than $1,450,000.5."