The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1921-01-20
AUDIT OF COUNTY
BOOKS COMPLETED
Show Marked Improve
ment Over Work of
Former Years y

1H0 EAH OIr D6IoHDacH e MOOu
the accountants, who have beel
working on the county books 70
several weeks, turned in their re
port on Monday, a compliment t.
county officers on the condition il
which they have kept their account
and shows that there is a marked
improvement in the last two year
and q half since the same firm
audited the accounts before. Sug
gestions made by them at that tim,
for the improvement of the methods
of keeping the accounts, have beer
put into operation and show results
There were number of errors in thu
accounts of different officials ant
the balances were off accordingly
Two or three of the officers had tt
''pungle up" few dollars apiece tt
mage the cash balance and Mr.. Moor
in making his report to the commits
sioners said this was always true;
that where people handle any con.
siderable amount of work and bust
ness q few errors are to be expected
in the work of a year or two. Every
body's work in this case show the in.
tent to be right. ..
Mr.. Moon pointed out number OF
manners in which improvements
could be made in the methods of
bookkeeping and suggested other
matters for the consideration of the
commissioners and other officials
where, change might or might not
be an improvement.
The contract price for the work of
auditing was $1,000 and they showed
where the county was saving or may
save much more than that amount
by acting on the suggestions made
and by using the information turned
in. For example, there is delinquent
personal tax which should not be,
but as matter of fact there gener-
ally is some of it hanging over into
the following year. The delinquent
real estate tax attaches itself to the
property and there is mo danger Of
the county losing it's bill, but in the
matter of personal taxes it is diff
ferent. The personal property may
vanish. The report shows list of
twenty or thirty persons still owing
personal tax for the year 1919, the
total amount of all of them being
$1262.8O. An examination of the
list shows that some of these people
have gone out Of business or left the
country tho they were perfectly good
at the time the assessment was made
and it was the duty of the assessor
to attend to the collections at the
time of the assessment. The officers
speak of these things as hangover"
and for the year 1920 there was
hangover" of $6486.92, but pay
ments are coming in so that this
amount is being reduced every day.
However, there are many items in
the accounts for businesses that have
been closed or for persons who have
left the county and in all probability
have taken their property with them.
Here again the assessment should
have been collected when made.
In the year 1919 the county paid
water masterms bills that have never
been refunded. The Neilson-Hanson
owes the county $9.45 for money ad-
vanced for water master services
that year and never repaid to the
county. The Jensen ditch owes an
account of $1297 the two making
total of $22.42.
Was Worse Last Year
1t does not appear that any action
was taken to compel two delinquent
bitches to pay their accounts for
1919 and for 1920 there were four
canal companies that took advantage
of the same situation to the extent
Of $154S.33 total There is the
Miners ditch running thru the south
side Of Blackfoot owing $51.52 for
Continued on page four