The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-12-14

covering the fiscal year ending on that date.
 q would first outline the procedure adopted by me in making this examma- ton, which was, briefly, as follows:
 "As the public improvement assess ments ledgers are in constant use by the comptrollers staff and have to be con suited continuously throughout the day, it was not practical for me to take these ledgers under my absolute control. therefore prepared forms to give sum- marized information of all accounts against tax payers, which were written up by the controllers staff at night and checked for accuracy by my staff. In this way considerable time and expense was saved and I have been able to keep my summarized records under my per son control during the course of the ex- animation.
 Ut developed that there were S,121 open accounts against tax payers; a form letter was sent by me to each tax payer requesting that he confirm the correctness of the balance shown against lhim as of July 31, 1924. These form letters were followed up, where no re- plies were received, by two other letters and a personal letter written to all tax payers who had charges against them or over S2OO. As of this date 6,l1o or 76.O7 per cent have replied, stating the account was correct.
 l. Receipts Examined ,. "Our next step was to account for'ail moneys received on public improvement assessments from October l, 1921, to July 31, 1924, that finally found it's way into the various bank accounts. rms required detailed examination of every receipt issued during the period under review, the final result being that all assessments for which receipts have been issued were accounted for, with the ex- ception of a difference of $1l.1S; as this item was so small did not reel justified in carrying my investigations further along thsee lines. In this con- nection, I should say that numerous er- TOTS developed in that interest was credited to principal and vice versa. It was further necessary to make detailed examination of the ordinance ledgers, in order not only to bring them in harmony with the assessment ledgers, but to verify the cash balance and other fea- lures as we'll. The many clerical errors that developed during the examination of this feature were adjusted by me. It also developed that the balance as shown on the public improvement ledgers as assessments receivable as of Octo- Der l, 1921, was at variance with the general control, $12,547.79, which was located, with the exception of $469.62, due to a clerical error in 1914. As did not know until I had run this error down whether this $12,547.79 had been misappropriated or not, it was necessary | to make a detailed examination of this | feature for ten years.
 'I also examined the records in the engineering department, (which records
 I found in excellent condition) showing original assessment levied against the
 tax payers, which were traced through the public improvement department rec ords, in order to satisfy myself as to the various charges.
 Many Errors Found
 ''This phase of the work developed numerous errors aggregating $79, ,62082, l i'll the account captioned Improve ments under construction" These er- TOTS brought out the fact that no con- sideration seemed to have been given to the interest accruing during construc- ton period, the ordinances being charged out at the proper amount, no corresponding entry being made for this accrued interest. It was therefore necessary to make complete analysis from October 1, 1918, of this account, that the true balance might be shown.
 Every account on the public inn provement ledger was thus analysed by me and the clerical errors adjusted. This analysis extended up to September 30, 1924, so that the detailed state rnents appearing in my report for the fiscal year ending on that date will be in harmony with the facts.
 "The errors above referred to were all of a clerical nature and although re. grettable, were in no way connected with any misappropriation of funds. There is another feature of the work which I did not feel justified in taking