The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1919-07-04


conditions we could only call your
attention to the infraction of the law
and recommend that this money be
returned to, the County Treasurer,
where, it at all times belnoged, and
although this was not done, no action
was taken as provided for under Sec
ton 100, Paragraph 6, OF the Revised
Political Codes, 1907.
In making this examination con-
siderable difficulty was encountered,
owing to the method used in keeping
a record Of the transactions effecting
this fund. Knowing that between
the date. of the creation Of the fund
end the date of the examination for
1918, there We're no records kept, it
was evident that such records as
were now available had been subse-
quentiy made. With this fact in
mind and realizing the necessity Of
III some manner verifying the fig
ures shown on the records of the
Auditor, letters were written to each
agent authorized to distribute gopher
poison for the County, asking for a
detail of their renittances and also
for a statement of the number of
pounds of poison on hand. In SOME
cases the replies contained the. de-
sired information, other stated they
had no records and in other instances
no replies were received. From
those replies containing detail of the
remittances, we were able to accu-
rately check the entries in the Audi
tors records, and in the other cases
it was necessary to search the cores
pondence with such agents and check
against the reports submitted by
them each month. Here we encoun-
tered another difficulty, owing to the
numerous errors made by the agents
in their reports and the different
methods used in renting. In some
instances the agents deducted their
per cent handling commission, from
their monthly remittances, others al
lowed this commission to accumulate
for several months and then deducted
the total from one report, while still
others remitted inf full. In Exhibit
b. we have noted the receipts as per
the Auditors Records and have indl-
Gated the stations on which we re-
ceived verifcation with the notation,
"Verifed by letter." and on those
station from which we received no
replies or complete verifcation, we
have placed the notation, "No Re-
port"
The Auditor in his record attempt
ed to show the amount OF poison
each station received, the amcrnt
sold, commission charges, overs and
shorts on shipments, handling charg-
es, etc., and the remittances received
by him on monthly reports. This
method did not prove satisfactory
| owing to the numerous transf ers
from one station to another and the
many charges necessary, occastoned
by the different methods employed
by the agents in remittance. In
some cases we found that the auditor
had charged himself with receipt
from poison, when in reality it was
credit due the agent for a transfer.
No receipts were required from
the agents for poison shipped them
and the only record of sucn transac-
+, tions was entries on the record OF
the Auditor. These were found TO
be very inaccurate and Tor 1hs
| reason we were unable To arrive at
any definite figure of the amount OF
poison actually shippei.. Transfers
of poison from one station to anoth-
Ell and shortages of shipments, on
which reports were not made to the
Auditor. account for the inaccuracy
of these figures. We have report
from the County Agent stating that
during 1918 a total of lao, Alb pounds
of poison were prepared. In "Ex-
hibit &C" we have listed the agents
from whom we received reports
showing a total of $3.50 pounds still
remaining in the hands of agents.
"Exhibit "H" is report received
from the County Agent showing
Accounts accurately checked in
1918 (December). This report
gives the total on hand as 11,142
pounds. These two reports show
difference of 1853 pounds. Assum-
ing that the report of the County
Agent is accurate, we arrive at the
following result. Total amount from
sales Exhibit "B"), S19,301.91, at
15c per pound gives 129,079.40 pounds
accounted for.
Total number of pounds,
prepared, as reported by
County Agent ------~--------I4o ,4lo.ou
Total number of
pounds account
ed for by sales,
Exhibit "B') --129,079.4U
Total number of
pounds on hand
| (Exhibit "H").. 11,142.00