The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1933-06-01
800 Late
90 Classify
BY RUSSELL KAY
Secretary, Florida Press Association
/ don't know who the architect


was that designed the pretty little
playhouse we set up for our coun-
,ty officials to romp around IN,
but If | had a guess coming I'd
say it must have been Santa
Claus.
According to summary just
issued by the State Auditing De-
partment, q check up on county
| books for the past two years dis
closes the fact that excess fees
were collected close to two mill
lion dollars, and while a portion
of this has been made good, the
bulk is still to be collected.
I'm not insinuatin' that our of
ficials are dishonest, perish the
thought. They're just ordinary
human beings for the most part
and when we go and dump a lot
I of temptation in their lap, it's no
wonder they get careless.
Suppose you hired guy in
your business to do some collect
in for you and instead of payin'
him q salary you just handed him
| a flock of bills and told him to go
ahead and collect 'em and keep
| ten per cent for his share.
So he goes out and collects a
hundred smackers, pockets the ten
bucks belongin' to him and says
what shall / do with this ninety
Idollars?" You got plenty of
money and don't give a darn so
you say: law, just keep it for
me and if ! need it I'll let You
know"
So your new collector goes on
collectin' and keepin' the money,
your money as well as his own.
Nobody asks him how much he's
got or what he's done with it.
Pretty soon he's got his pockets
so jammed up with jack that he
Ijust naturally loses track OF
(which is his and which is yours.
He naturally gets to feelin'
more or less prosperous, so he
buys a house and a car and lot
of other things and don't worry a
whole lot about whose money pays
for it. He figures there's plenty
more where that came from and
even if h does get some of yours
mixed up with his it won't make
any difference, because yen don't
need it or want it anyhow and no.
body is checkin' on him so he buys
a country home and couple Oh
tracing horses.
Then times get tough. Old man
depression comes along and takes
| you and Lot Of other folks over
the jumps. Then all of sud.
den you remember about the guy
you sent coIlectin' so you call hin
up on the carpet and say '.gim-
me-"
| Chances are you haven't shown
Amy interest in him or his work.
for eight or ten years. You dom
even know whether he's beer
i keepin' books or not, but now You
i pounce on him with both feet ana
il it develops that he's spent some
of your dough you are all indig
| nant and upset about it.
/ OF course you wouldn't do bus.
mess like that yourself, nobod,
would. But that's the way yot
allow your governmental agencies
to function and then you wonder
| why things get in mess.
/ Records show that there arr
some counties in this state where
no audit has been made for ter
years. No one knows what ths
situation il. Yoa have a state
auditing department charged will
the duty of checking these record:
for your protection. Why dom
they do it?
/ Simply because you have fail
ed to provide the machinery and
money necessary for them to fnne
ton. In the foolish name of econ.
| omy you've kidded yourself that
you were saving money by cut.
ting down the number Of auditors
and trimming the budget Of this
department,
There may be some bureaus
and departments that eould be
done away with. and others that
could be cut down. but your audit
ing department isn't one Of 'en.
Every set of county books IN the
state should be audited at least
once each year, as well as the
books Of every bureau. depart
naent and commission. IL you
were to double the personnel Of
your auditing department and
provide twice as much for 4 IN
the budget. you would find i osas
Of the best Investments ever made.
| In fairness 10 your officials as
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