The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-12-19
ALLOWANCE OF CLAIMS

, therefore charged the amount so paid to the county treasurer
 ALLOWANCE OF CLAIMS Section l47 of the code of 1907 provides that No claim against the county shall
 be passed upon or allowed by tue court of county commissioners unless it is
 itemized and sworn to by the claimant o. some person in his behalf havmg per sonal Knowledge of the facts, and all
 claims passed upon and allowed. accord ing to this section, must be entered iii the order in which they were allowed in d book kept for that purpose and file, for future reference With d few eA-
 captions the board required strict com pliance with the first part of this sec tion. All claims not so itemized and sworn to arc listed in q statement else where in this report and the amount dis cursed thereunder charged to the treas urer. The last clause of the above quo tation was clearly intended to require
 ne claims allowed to Us, nted and heps by the board of revenue, but for many
 years this has not been done Instead, the board has permitted these claims to be passed into the keeping of the county auditor, an officer who, until about No vember 1918, was elected by the people,
 and since that time, under an amend
 ment to the law creating the office, holds
 office by appointment of the treasurer.
 The law creating the office of auditor, act approved January 1, 1899, amended by an act approved September 4, 1915, local acts 1915, page 2SS, places on such auditor
 the duty of auditing the books and ac-
 counts of the various county officers,
 just as we, as examiners of accounts, are required to do, but for some unknown reason such auditor has never attempted the performance of any part of the duties
 so prescribed by law, but on the con
 trary, has been given mere detail or
 what is in fact the work of the board of revenue or it's employees, that of verify ing extensions and additions on the claims presented for allowance and or keeping such claims after they are audited and allowed by the board of reve- nue. When the office of auditor was made appontve by the treasurer this practice was continued and is being fol- lowed up to the present time. Ghe clanns in the hands of the former auditor when he retired from office were delivered by him to the county treasurer and Wers by him turned over to us for the pur- pose of this audit, but we found several hundred of the claims allowed during the year 1917 to have been badly worm- eaten. many of them having been vir- trally destroyed
 It being clear to us that the treasurer.
 
 who alone is responsible for illegal dis
 bursements, could not be held respon-
 sible for the amount represented by the claims destroyed by bookworms, it was necessary for use to base our audit for that year on the other available records. However, we wish to emphasize the fact that it was the duty of the board of revenue to file and keep these claims and not pepnit them to be taken out of their hands by some officer or employe whose duties, fixed by law. did not concern these vouchers in any way except as
 such auditor might or should from time to time need them to audit the books of the board of revenue in the manner pro- vided by law.
 CONTRACTS FOR ROAD
 AND BRIDGE CONSTRUCTION
 Section Il of an act approved Septem-
 Der 22, 1915, provides that no contract for
 d.