Evening star., 1949-02-28
Antiquuted Federal Accounting

One salient fact emerges from the
Hoover Commissions conflicting views on
the Governments budgeting and account
ing systems, namely, that no modern busi
ness establishment would tolerate the out
moded procedures now handicapping Fed
eral fiscal services. All members of the
commission are agreed that there are
serious weaknesses in the present set
up. There Is general agreement not only
among the commissioners but among
Treasury and Budget officials and the
Controller General that an overhaul is
long overdue.
1t is just too much to expect fiscal ma
chinery designed to handle governmental
bookkeeping in the pre-multibillion dol
lar-budget days to bear up under the
strain of budgets of the forty billion dollar
variety. The commission found that some
of the practices still in effect date back to
the regime of Alexander Hamilton. In the
days of small and simple budgets it was
easy to see at a glance where the tax
payers money was going and how it was
being used. But things have become too
complicated now to obtain such view
WITHOUT CONSIDERABLE reSedTCIl.
The commission cites an interesting local
example of today's uninformative budget
ing. There is no way to learn readily from
today's budget exactly how much it costs
each year to operate the Naval Medical
Center at Bethesda. There is no one title
in the budget which provides this informa-
ton: Instead, the costs are broken up into
a dozen different Navy appropriation sub
heads, according to which division of the
Navy Department Is concerned with par
ticular phase of the center's operation. To
correct such inadequacies, the commission
proposes a new system of performance
budgeting," under which one could obtain
quickly detailed figures both as to total
cost and total accomplishments of the
center or other governmental agency or
activity
When the commission came to the ques-
ton of improving accounting and auditing
procedures, however, varying views de-
veloped. The majority view was that
accounting in general was an executive
function which should be integrated under
an Accountant General" leaving the Con-
troller General, legislative officer, free to
audit the accounts kept by the adminstra-
tive establishment. Thus, the departments
would keep the books and the Controller
General would check them. Two members
Of the commission objected to any rigid
division on the ground that it would
undermine the broad investigative powers
which Congress intended to give the Con-
troller General. One of the disSenterS,
significantly, was Senator Mcclellan,
Democrat, of Arkansas, who is chairman
of the committee Executive Expenditures
which will consider the Hoover recon-
mendations.
That there is need for reform in the
accounting auditing system is evident
however, from the voluntary cooperative
efforts of the Controller General, the
Treasury and the Budget Bureau to i'm
prove existing accounting methods. This
is matter so important in this era of
near astronomical fiscal statistics that
Congress should face the problem boldly,
even though 1t might mean some reform in
its own agency, the General Accounting
Office. Controller General Warren has in
dicated that he would welcome any study
or improvement which Congress should see
fit to make at the GAO While it is true
that the Hoover Commission has no au-
thority to investigate any legislative
agency, Congress itself should not hesitate
to extend the reorganization program to
the GAO if to do so would strengthen that
vital agency as a watchdog" over Federal D..
expenditures
"A manufacturer hopes in the next year