Evening star., 1932-04-13
$50 446 ADDITIONAL
MONTGOMERY FUND
SHORTAGE REPORTED
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kept in the name Of Berry E. Clark
clerk eouny commissioners, which was
establi1hed in 1928 and against which
he is charged with having drewn about
s24, 900 in checks payable to himself
and deposited them in his personal ac-
count and $4,000 in cheeks to himself
and personally indorsed.
The last check on this account, it is
alleged, vas drawn On March %. four
days before he was dismissed, fer $500.
TIE audit report could not cover this
account ii has BEN stated, because no
record was kept Of 1t and there were
no bookkeeping entries against which
to check the n oneys. It's existence was
disco -erld, howe, er, by the auditing
firm of r, G, Rankin q Co., who au-
dited the county's books starting with
July l, 1915.
s2,S96 Items Located.
Items amounting to approximately
$2896 We're located by the auditors,
listed as county income In various en-
tries in the general county books in the
county commissioner Office. but pay
ment to the county or deposits to the
eounty's credit were not located.
Mr.. Clark is said to have admitted
the existence of the account when
questioned by the auditors and the
attorneys Of the county concerning the
S2,896 two days before the audit report
was submitted. A check for approxi-
mately S2.896 to cover these items was
turned over to the county treasurer
the day he was dismissed. At the
same time he turned OYER the can
celed checks against the unknown ac-
count
The auditing firm continued with
the investigation of this unknown bank
account and submitted their informa-
ton to the States attorney for presen-
tation to the grand jury.
Concerning his regular pay checks,
Mr. Bond of the auditing flrm told the
grand jury, it was learned. that 1t was
Mr. Clark'S habit to deposit these
checks directly in his personal &C
count, so that these items did not pass
through the unknown account.
Into this special account, Mr., Bond
stated, it had apparently been Mr.,
Clark's custom to deposit checks lof
bond bids sheriff's Office remittanceS.
fees for building permits, proceeds of
several county bond issues between
1925 and 1880, some of the money
from the resale of property bought by
the county at tax sale and checks
of the county commissioners for the
reimbursement of the maintenance OF
insane persons. When questioned about
the account. Mr.. Clark is alleged to
have maintained that he did not con-
slider 1t an ofhcial account.
Account Not Authorized.
Lacy Shaw, president of the Board OF
County Commissioners, stated today
that the commissioners had never au-
thorized Mr.. Clark to keep a bank &C
count In his name as clerk, and since
there was no record pertaining to such
an account in their Office and no MEM
ber of the board or its attorneys had
ever heard of such an account, 1t was
obviously impossible to include that ac-
count in the annual county audits that
hare been held each year, as required
by county law.
Mr.. Shaw also ststed that the audit
ing Arm was not able TO find any refer
ence to Mr. Clark's clerk account dur
ing any portion of their audit OF the
county books and the account was not
discovered until finally admitted by Mr..
CLARK two days before he was dismissed.