Milford chronicle., 1958-11-28
Harry Smith Tells
OF Insurance Week
continued from page onel

by paragraph (b1, the General
Assembly has made it mandatory
upon the Insurance Commissioner
to insure, and keep insured, all
State property. In view of this
language, it is the Opinion of this
office that you, as Insurance Com
missioner, must take and keep con-
troll of the placement of all insur-
ance on State property. This view
is further strengthened by para
graphs Id and (e) of the above
statute which requires you to re-
ceive and approve all bills for
premiums dues, and to make de-
tailed report to the Governor and
the General Assembly of the insur-
ance in force.
In view of the mandatory lang
uage of the statute, it is orr fur
ther Opinion that you are retU;Ted
to insure, and keep insured the
property of the State unde' the
control of agencies who receive
separate appropriations for lnsur-
ance. Until such time as the Legis-
lature clearly relieves you of this
responsibility, you should insist on
exercising the control of the States
insurance, which has been imposed
upon the Insurance Commissioner
by the above statute, regardless of
whether the premiums to be paid
are charged to your appropriation,
or to the appropriation of the State
agency to which money has been
specifically appropriated for insur-
ance of State property"
Commissioner Smith sent out
directive to all state agencies and
boards who have not been comply
ing with the statute mentioned
above requesting additional infor-
nation as follows:
I'm order that / might comply
with these statutes, would appre-
ciate detailed report from you by
January /, 1859 containing the fol-
lowing information:
1. Amounts and types of insur-
ance carried at present by your
agency or board on each piece of
State property, buildings, contents,
autOmotive equipment, or any other
property over which you have
jurisdiction.
2. Names and addresses of insur-
ance agencies now insuring this
property.
3. Expiration dates of these poll
cies.
A. Amount of money now left in
your budget for insurance purposes
for the remainder of the fiscal year
ending June 80, 1859.
In order that l might comply
with paragraph (c), Section 337,
18 Delaware Code, kindly forward
me all of the policies referred to
above which you are now holding.
Do not arrange for any new poll
cies to be written or any renewals
to be made on any property under
your jurisdiction as referred to
above after the date of this direc-a
tive. Kindly refer all requests for
new insurance. as well as renew
ais, to this Department.
1t is highly important that all
the requests made above be COM
piled with at an early date, not
later than January 1, 1859, in or
der that l might comply with para
graph (e), Section 337, 18 Delaware
Code"
Mr.. Smith has recently had a
survey completed on the insurance
being placed on State property over
which he has had Jurisdiction. This
survey provides the State a saw
ings Of over $4,000. This was ac-
complished by having the survey
made by members of his Depart.
ment with The assistance of insur-
ance company personnel at no cost
to the State. Had he availed himself
of the services of a private apprai-
sal company which wanted to do
this job, it would have cost the
State of Delaware in the neighbor-
hood of approximately $35, 900. The
savings that will be effected
through reduction in rate as re-
suit of this survey plus the fact
that this insurance is under a
blanket coverage will amount to
over $4,000 to the State.
Since this is on just portion of
the State property, Commissioner
Smith feels confident that by hav-
ing all of the insurance on State
property under the direction of his
office, as provided by law, that
over a period of time he will be
able to effect savings to the State
of many thousands of dollars.
With the present fiscal condition
that exists in Delaware with the
State facing such a large deficit as
has been indicated by the recent
report of the State Budget Commits
sion, it is reasonable to assume
that this move on the part of COM
missioner Smith should aid a great
deal in helping to balance the bud-
get.