The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1952-04-25
GRAFTERS FEAR
LINDSAY WARREN
PAPER REPORTS
Comptroller Generals Crack
Down on Chislers of the
Government Spares
None
By James and Ann Free
Gin the Washington Starr

AS any one in Washington cal
plainly see, this is open season OF
spendthrifts and bribe-t takers il
Government. But open as the sea
son may be, it is curious that non'
of the highly touted hunters show
any inclination to seek or heSd thu
advice of the country's elder states
man among corruption hunters
Controller General Lindsay C
Warren.
Newbold Morris, for instance
did not get around to seeking War.
ren's advice on ways and means OF
locating and minimizing corrup-
ton. Nor have the President or the
Congress recognized the existence
of Warren's oft-repeated counsel
on how to get at the root of the
evil-doing at taxpayers expense.
Lindsay Warren has been called
the conscience of Government
and the peoples advocate" He
has dedicated his General Account
ing Office to the exposure of fiscal
finagling with remarkable results.
In IL years, this unique and rela-
lively unsung bureaucrat has res
cued almost $500 million of tax
payers money-more than a mil
lion dollars a week-from the
drains and cutters of dishonesty,
inefficiency and just plain waste.
His GAO double-checks contracts
and bookkeeping of Federal de-
partments and agencies. When his
auditing sleuths find something
askew in Federal spending, War
rem not only reports it to Congress,
but goes ahead and tries to recap
ture misspent money.
Undoubtedly, as recent scandal
exposes indicate, many millions
have still escaped, but the blame
cannot be placed at Warren's door.
He goes as far as he can legally
in recovering lost, strayed or stol-
en- Government funds.
Suggestions Little Needed
Sixty-three-year-old Warren fits
into the current cleanup "to-do" by
his persistent, but little-heeded,
recommendations for basic per-
manent reforms, rather than tenn
porary ones. If his proposals had
been enacted into law, there would
be less need for flurries of reform
with special questionnaires and
Investigators.
Since so many troubles have
stemmed from business employ
ment of former Government Off
Gals, with whom they were doing
business, Warren has suggested a
remedy for this many times. He
believes Congress should restore to
full vigor a de-fanged 1872 statute.
That law banned former Govern
ment officers and employees for two
years after leaving the service
from acting as counsel, attorney or
agent to prosecute any claim a.
gainst the United States pending
in their department before they
left.
AS a corollary he has suggested
of law disqualify-
ing persons coming into Govern
ment from handling any Govern
ment business with firms that had
them within the past two
years.
An even more stringent proposal
made by Warren in the past year
would require the filing of reports
by Government employees, who
leave to accept jobs with firms
dealing with the United States
Government. This requirement, in
Warren's view, "would help detect
and punish connivance between
Government employees and contrac-
tors for future employment"
Anti-Bribery Measures
Warren has advocated hard and
long the strengthening of criminal
laws on bribery of Government Of
ficials and employees.
In testimony last summer before
the congressional committee study
ing ethics in Government, Warren
recommended that a compulsory
and thoroughgoing course on "the
American taxpayer" should be
given wherever the United States
bears the cost of educating or