Bisbee daily review., 1922-01-21
ANOTHER AUDIT
 IF ROAD FUNDS WILL bt MADE
Clerk of High Department Is Peeved; Charges Warped
 Minds in Cochise County

InOS. MduuOCk, 0dS WrlIlcu CO tuO clerk of the board of supervisors, M. c. Hankins, that another audit will be made and the results of it will be forwarded to Cochise county. The letter is the result of an investigation of charges, originally made by Charles M. Roberts, former member of the board of supervisors and pub lished in the Douglas International, that large sum of money had been diverted by the state engineer from Cochise county The charges were investigated by the Review and sew eral editorials were printed on the subject. The Tombstone Prospector also questioned the figures submitted by the state engineer. The clerk of the board of supervisors, MT. Han kins, then wrote letter to the state highway, department asking for an explanation of the item.
 Inghram's letter to Hankins and the latter's reply follow:
 Phoenix, Arizona,
 January 16, 1922. Mr. M. c. Hankins, Clerk,
 Board of Supervisors,
 Tombstone, Arizona.
 Dear Sir
 Your letter of December 21st ask ing for an accounting of $124,519.34, was received after our attention was called to it's publication in the Tomb stone Prospector.
 We would like to know who claims that any portion of Cochise County's funds was diverted for road construc- tion outside of that county. We would also like for you to suggest some manner in which this matter can be explained so that it will be under stood, if it is the desire of those mak- ing these foolish statements to under stand.
 Recently a committee from Cochise consisting of the chairman of the Board of Supervisors, the County At torney and the Secretary of the Tax payers. Association investigated the report that $75,000 of Cochise Coun- tvs money has been diverted. We understand that this committee checked the expenditures to within $3,000 from the records of your office before coming to Phoenix and on their Arrival here secured additional information and documents showing an absolute check in the State Audit or's and State Treasurer's offices with out accounts. If the report of these citizens of your county, who are especially qualified to make this investigation, is questioned, We do not know how we can prove anything to you. However, we are again mak- ing up a complete statement includ- ing the balance on hand in the state 75 per cent fund apportioned to Co., chise County on January 1st, 1919, the receipts ~of the fund since this time, and the receipts of the Federal Aid on Cochise road construction, to- gether with the expenditures on all roads in Cochise County from Janu- ary 1st, 1919, toSdate. We are getting this information from each claim as it was passed by the State Auditor, so you can see it will take some time to accomplish this. AS soon as it is completed we will send it, to you. In addition, we are financing from our 25 per cent fund the completion of the Benson-Vail road and the cost of maintenance in Cochise County until July 1st of this year.
 We have repeatedly explained to your Board, various committees and citizens that Federal Aid is not re- ceived until after most of the road Is constructed. On the Bisbee-Douglas section, for instance, this road was built and the contractors paid before any Federal funds were received. On this account it is absolutely necessary for us to finance some road construc- tion out of other funds until Federal moneys are secured You will there fore have to consider total expendit- ures rather than the amounts expend- ed on some specific road. While theoretically our Federal Aid roads are built by Federal and State mon- eys, frequently one road will be paid the next one entirely out of Federal funds which are received on account of the first road construction.
 This explanation is only made for the benefit of the good people of Co., chise County. We do not expect to be able to explain this simple trans action to minds warped by partisan prejudice. We welcome a full inves- tigation by any competent accountant For those who do not care to go into the financial details, we say please look at the map of Cochise County. The State and Territorial Highway Department has been ,functionihg since 1909, or over 12 years. Federal aid has been available since 1916, or almost years. The present adminis- tration has been in office years. During these years more than twice the amount of highway has been con Sfructad hV the State Highway De-