Evening star., 1949-01-19
Big GAO Job Cut
May in
Hoover Report
DecentroIized Agency,
Shift in Functions
Indicated in Study
By james Y. Newton

The Hoover Commission today
was reported prepared to recon-
mend drastic changes in the
Governments methods of &C
counting which would lead to a
huge reduction in personnel at
the General Accounting Office.
Principal changes which it was
indicated will be suggested by the
group now completing its report on
Government reorganization would
decentralize the great accounting
function of the worlds largest bus
mess and shift a good part of the
work load from GAO to the various
Federal departments.
A new post-that of Accountant
General-would be set up in the
Treasury Department for super
vision of all accounting activities.
The commission, it is understood.
would stop the practice of shipping
literally freight carloads Of expense
vouchers and other documents to
Washington for checking at GAO.
Instead, the vouchers would be ex-
amined at various places in the field
through a system of spot-checking.
That step also would lead to a
material reduction in the GAO's
force here.
Critical of Methods.
Commission experts we're de-
scribed as highly critical of the Fed
eral accounting methods, declaring
that severe changes must be made
now in order to save both red tape
and money Under the present syS-
tenn, it was said, the heads OF many
executive departments and agencies
never know from time to time how
much of their appropriation has
been spent and how much is left
for the year.
Changes in the budget to make it
simpler and more understandable to
| the public and officials alike are to
be recommended by the group. They
were said to favor an approach in
drafting the budget that would en-
phasize the type and Importance of
work to be done and services to be
received for the various funds re-
quested rather than the present
method of expression in terms OF
personal services. equipment and
supplies to be acquired.
/ AS a further means Of making
the budget simpler, it will be sug-
gested that total expenditures be
divided into two parts-operating
expenditures and capital outlays.
Would Revise Authority.
There was said to be strong senti-
ment at the commission for removal
of the entire accounting function
from the Office of the controller
general and making the individual
departments responsible for their
own accounting. Those who IA
vored that step, and they were said
to number nearly all commission
members except the congressional
group, argued that the present setup
is not only highly inefficient and
wasteful, but that it is an usurpa-
tion of executive branch authority
since the controller general, the
Federal auditor, is accountable to
Congress. The hard-fought battle
lasted for weeks.
Congressional members of the
commission were powerful enough
to prevent the recommendation
from going through and the COM
promise was adopted
/ Actually what the commission is
expected to suggest finally reduces
the role of the controller in ac-
counting, although he retains its
general overall supervision.
The commission is expected to say
that many Government fiscal
methods were outmoded decades
ago and now amount to a tre-
mendous burden in the form Of
wasted effort that cannot be carried
much longer.
1 Nearly every operation of the
Government was said to be slowed
ana otherwise affected by the
archaic practices.
AS corrective measures, it was