Putnam patriot., 1927-12-15
Town Tressurers Report

Town reasurer Report
 "There is set forth in Exhibit \ fattaehed to the reporD q tentative statement of the Treasurer's cash receipts and disbursements of the period from Sept. l. la25 te and in- cluding Oct. 31. 1927, showing a balance as of the latter date of S14.073.i6.
 At the start of our engagement. We discovered that the Town Treas urer kept record of cash receipts and orders drawn instead of cash receipts and disbursements, so that at no time did his records neeessar- ily disclose the correct balance of cash that should be on hand. Mum erous instances were found of checks being drawn in advance of the receipt of orders by the Treasurer and orders recorded in his records month earlier than the checks were drawn
 "Mr Elliott told us that for his entire 20-year term as town treas urer. he had never rec0nclled his hank balances. Since he did not know the balance on deposit Tn the town bank accounts, frequent over drafts existed
 aThere was no relationship be- tween the cash receipts recorded III his records and the deposits made Tn the town bank accounts. except for instances in which he deposited cheeks from the State of Conneeti- cut it was impossible for us to trace deposit receipts to deposits in bank accounts
 "The auditors have now instruct. cd Town Treasurer Chase to deposit all receipts in bank accounts prompt ly upon receipt by him. Hereafter orders will have to be signed oy the Board of Selectmen or by the School Board. e.
 Exhibit A referred to in the trsi mart of the auditors report were the figures of transactions in the books of the Town Treasurer in the years audited.
 Town Colleetor's Books
 The auditors then continued their report with a report of the audit on the books of the Tax Collector Phi lip L. Duhamel.
 The auditors in their report on .beir audit of the Tax Collector $ hooks recommended that the Tax Collector deposit his tax collections in n bank instead of turning the same over to the Town Treasurer and the accounts be carried m the name of the town. Philip L. Duham- q. tax collector. The banks then should honor only cheeks drawn thereon. payable to the Town Treas urer."
 Continuing their report the audi tors state "The Tax Collector has not made a practice of collecting m. forest on overdue taxes as required hv the statutes and we recommend that in the future he faithfully per form the duties of his office Tn thls
 s.Your attention is also drawn to the fact that the Tax Collector has failed to faithfully perform the du- ties of his office with respect to con ,inuing tax liens by filing eertih- cates."
 Figures contained in the records of the Tax Collector audited were attached 10 the audit as Exhibit E
 The figures showed they found the following amount of taxes un- collected: Property tax, 1928, sll,- 30; 1924. s97 .e5; 1925, i,6Oo.ss. 1926, s4.107el. Personal taxes Tor 1923. SIS: 1924, s221; 1925. $500 1926. s23. The total uneolieeted taxes being ss.020.so.
 Town Meeting
 The first article taken up in the town meeting was to see if the town would appropriate a sum of money for repairs on the grade schools. Agent Reardon, a member of the school committee, called the atten, ton of the voters to papers he held in his hand which, he said. were orders from the superintendent of .shoole on how to run the meetings