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1 A.BU TANZ
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Ipa Gro 1930.OYO
TECNO VON C
5/-
The circumstances under which the defalcations were
committed by the Shroff, Lai Wing Tak, in the Junk Office of the
Harbour Department have been so fully stated and dealt with by
the Committees of the Executive Council in the reports of the
two enquiries held respectively relative to charges made against
F. P. Lenfestgy, Second Clerk in the Harbour Department and
Kr. E. Jones, Acting Assistant Harbour l'aster that your commit-
tee does not consider that it is here necess ry to recapitulate
them. Your Committee, therefore, only proposes in this Report
VT.
to endeavour to analyze the circumstances obtaining in the far- bour Department which enabled the perpetration of these frauds
to be carried out successfully and to express its opinion as to the persons, if any, on whose shoulders the real blane lies.
6/-
The key which opened the door to the peculations of
the Shroff was undoubtedly the fact that Kr. Lenfestey never
attempted to carry out in their entirety the instructions laid down in Government Order No. 315 (3) in so far as that order prescribes that "Collectors and authorized subordinates, before signing receipts, must see that the amount is duly entered in had Mr. Lenfestey seen, before signing a re- the Cash book;"
had was given ceipt, that the amount for which the receipt been duly entered in the Shroff's Collection ook (or, as it may be called for this purpose, Cash Book), the defalcations could not have taken place in the manner in which they actually occurred. `r. Lenfestey does not attempt to deny that he did
not do this work, but he excuses himself on the grounds which are set out in full in paragraph 7 of the Report of the Commit- tee of the Executive Council which enquired into the charges made against him in August of this year, this defence amounting to the suggestion that he did not know that the execution of this portion of the General Order quoted was any part of his duty, he only carrying out the system to which he had been ac- customed believing that the necessary precautions were supplied