Evening star., 1947-03-24
Baldwin 10 Ask Kruq
|For Full Audit Of GSI
Bicycle Concession

A fresh attempt to check the
books Of profitable bicycle sub
concession of Government Services,
Inc, was made today when Rep
resentative Baldwin, Republican, of
Connecticut decided to ask Secre-
tary of the Interior Krug to have
top department auditors dig deeply
into the matter.
The records of the bicycle conces-
sion operated by j. N. Romm have
been investigated for weeks by a
Senate Post Office and Civil Serv-
ice Subcommittee without produc-
ing satisfactory audit, Senator
Baldwin, subcommittee chairman,
charged. .-..
; Testimony from both National
Park Service and General Account
ing Office auditors at a hearing to-
day brought the statement from
Senator Baldwin that apparently
there are so many auditors in this
picture here that each thought the
other was doing the job"
1T seems to me matter of too
many cooks having a spoon in the
BROTH" the Senator said.
Report Being Completed.
Spokesmen for the National Park
Service told the committee the Gen.
eral Accounting Office had agreed
to audit the books, but so far no
report has been received from that
agency. This testimony was given
by E. A. Demaray, assistant chief of
the NATIONAL Park Service. and R. c.
Mccarthy, an auditor of the Park
Service responsible for checking the
accounts of concessionaries.
Senator Baldwin asked John
Wood, accountant assigned by the
GAO to the committee, about this.
Mr.. Wood replied the corporation
audit division Of the GAO now was
actively engaged in completing a
report on its audit of Government
Services, Inc, and the report should
be available soon.
Mr.. Demaray countered that he
thought the GAO should make more
prompt reports.
This is very bad situation Mr..
Demaray charged, "the GAO hasn't
given us a report for year and a
half"
Senator Baldwin said that the
committee had SO much trouble in
trying to get an accurate report on
the bicycle CONCESSIONS books, that
it was about time to "get to the
bottom of this thing"
There is not much involved here
in money" Senator Baldwin said,
'but if the Government agencies are
doing their work so loosely there is
an opportunity for thousands or
millions of dollars to be lost with nc
way of telling where it goes. We
ought to pause right here and find
out the facts"
Maybe the Senate subcommittee
might discover something in the
bicycle discussion here, he said, that
would be of advantage to national
committees studying concessions In
national parks throughout the coun-
try.
Willing to Pay for Water.
The committee in its letter tt
Secretary Krug, will ask that ac.
countants from the Budget anc
Management Branch of the interior
Department examine the records o.
Mr.. Romm to establish if any addi.
tional amount of money is due GSl
in accordance with the terms of hi.
contract. The contract calls fol
dividing profits with GSI, which ir
turn is supposed to split its profit:
with the Government.
Frank w. Hoover, general man.
ager of GSI, told the committee thai
it was willing to pay for water usec
in its cafeterias, but always hac
understood that this had been paie
for because the Government, ht
thought, paid the District for water
used in its buildings.
Senator Johnston, Democrat, o1
South Carolina, corrected Mr.
Hoover, declaring that the Fedora
Government did not pay the Dis
trict for water used in its buildings
The question was one of the many
problems now under consideration
Senator Johnston said, by the
Senate District Committee, of which
he is a member. He pointed out the
whole question of fiscal relations
between the two government is being
studied by a joint sessions of fiscal
subcommittee of the House and
Senate District committees.