Evening star., 1946-03-28
Audit Findings
On 'Chise|ers'
Again Assai|ed
Welfare Directors
Question PiIkerton
On Competency
By John w. Thompson. Jr

tAC Acuo pCtWCCA tIlc 6OdIQ q
Public Welfare and Auditor A. R
Pilkerton was developing today int,
Q full-fedged municipal battle fol
lowing a second reputation by tn,
board last night of Mr.. Pilkerton'
recent relief administration inves
tigation report which charged II
per cent of the relief clients wer'
"chiselers."
Although the board late last weel
entered a case by case analysis ans
reply to the auditors charges be-
fore the House subcommittee han
ding the District budget, last nigh
1t made public a further refutatio,
Of Mr.. Pilkertons findings and rec
concentrations.
Pointing to language in Distric
appropriation bills since 1888 givin,
the auditor sole power to determin,
II relief funds are being properly
administered, the members sale
bluntly that if Mr.. Pilkerton wa.
correct in his charges "the question
would arise as to the competence
Of the auditor to administer the re-
sponsibility assigned him" in the
act.
Case by Case Analysis.
In its case by case analysis the
board found only l per cent of the
cases questionable.
AS a matter of fact, the board
said, If public assistance is to be
criticized, the attack should be in
terms of the comment of the Social
Security Board that the functioning
of the administration here seems
designed to exclude people from the
assistance program rather than to
extend. the benefits to eligibles.
In addition to the fight over the
charges of the Pilkerton report, the
welfare agency, backed by the So
cial Security Board, is challenging
the auditors intervention in relief
administration through the preaudit
OF relief expenses. The Social Sc
curity Board, which by law must deal
with single responsible agency, has
raised the question as to whether
Mr.. Pilkerton's activities constitute
him as a second power sharing
agency. The District is receiving
annually from the Social Security
Board some $650000 on a fund
matching basis for old age assist
ance, aid to needy blind and aid to
dependent children.
Fight on Central Office.
Also hotly contested is the well
fare boards proposal for a central
business Office which Mr.. Pilkerton
opposes as a duplication and usurpa-
ton of his functions. A request is
still pending for an investigation by
the Controller General to decide the
matter
The board members last night
called for elimination of the 1888
appropriation act language under
which the auditor accounts for the
relief funds. They also asked that
the accounting and disbursing 'be
placed under the board in a central
Office instead of under the auditor y
The General Accounting Office
they declared, has challenged the
appropriation bill language "be-
cause under it the auditor both keeps
the books and audits them" It has
been questioned by the Social Sc
curity Board, they added, because
under 1t the auditors staff under
takes to decide eligibility and need"
The language was inserted at the
instance of former Auditor Dan
Donovan as a means of checking
relief expenditures.
Hits at Recommendation.
Striking at recommendation In
the Pilkerton report for a resump-
ton of ceilings" on relief payments
similar to those in effect in 1943
but revised slightly upward" the
board said:
Ceilings ignore the special needs
Of the sick, the friendless and the
helpless. The 1943 ceilings assumed
surplus commodities. They required
experimentation from charitable
persons and agencies. They had no
relationship to 'decency and health,
but contributed to degradation and
disease"
If the District canot afford to
finance the minimum budget of the
Welfare Board, the board will parcel
out available funds, the members
said.
But those funds" they added
should be distributed, as at present,
in accordance with need, on a per-
centage of the approved budget,
rather than under arbitrary ceilings,
which cannot take account of in
dividual need"
Retort on Supervision.
In response to the auditors sug-
gestion to the subcommittee that
tho present supervisor of adult relief
was exercising a loose supervision,
the? members of the board retorted !:
The remarkably small number
OF errors proven by the auditor
during period when personnel has
beerHscarce and staff turnovers high,
is the best possible proof of the
competence and diligence of the
superintendent"
The board agreed with the audi
tor that cases ought to be checked
at least quarterly but recommended
against making such procedure man.
datory. Some cases, the members
said, require monthly review while
others, more stable, can be trusted
six months or longer.
Time limits on reviews should
be determined enthusiastically, !"
! the members held.
Residence Requirement.
Another Pilkerton suggestion that
the one-year residence requirement
for general relief and aid to de-
pendent children be extended to
three years was hit as out of har-
mony with pending proposals be-
fore Congress. In any event the
board urged that any change be
done in substantive law rather than
In an appropriation bill,
The auditors declaration that a
70 per cent increase in relief funds
now being sought is out of line with
requirements for the District, drew
from the board the observation that
it has already made extensive JUS
tification of its estimates before the
committee. The members said.
however, that the figure was the