1941-03-11 — Page 40

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THE CHINA MAIL, MARCH 11, 1941.

IMMIGRATION OFFICE

OFFICE INQUIRY

(Continued from Page 1)

cially advised to apply to the "General Agen" if they wished to avoid delay in obtaining refunds. As the officer entrusted with

in

It must have represented near-the duty of making all payments ed from imprest cash, the Immi- ly one thousand different indivi- on behalf of Government, either. gration Officer accepted, as pro- dunis.

directly or through authorised re- bably adequate, an imprest of Detalls of the serial numbers of presentations

other depart- $1,000 suficient to refund,

I could not allow this say, Deposit receipts issued and brought ments, 20 deposits per day.

to account from time to time in practice to continue. The Immi- Eventually, it was found, when the Treasury disclosed gaps which: gration Officer himself was absent the department commenced to were explained by the Immigra- from his office on that day, but, operate that an imprest of no tion Officer As representing re at my request, his assistant gave less than $40,000 was necessary, ceipts issued in respect of security instructions that the repayment of not other than Hong Kong dollars. deposits by the General Agent In October, in fact, it was even thought that the number No detailed statement has, how was to conse forthwith. of deposit receipts anticipated ever, been furnished in respect of The next day the Immigration Justified the printing of a special receipts as issued and I have lit-Officer himself and Mr. Von Kobza form of receipt.

hope of ever getting such 21 came to see me. My report to "It was my intention to

statement. re-

Government in L. M. "General

commend

the to

Immigration

Agency" gives details of the rela- Officer forms of permits which

tions with the "General Agency" would themselves

and it is of interest to note that constitute a

whilst

under form of receipt for the fee paid.

this report was There was even a suggestion discussion, certain revenue collec- "Without consulting me, the Immigration Officer

of accepting devised

dotions by the General Agent were paid into Treasury by cheques

"Kobza Art Studio." drawn on the account of the

and had printed some thous ands of permit forme, bound in books of 200 each, which, from my point of view, were open to almost every possible ob. jection, including

le

I am quite unable to accept foreign currencies or to acquiesce In their acceptance by other de- partments.

at one time posita in kind. No attempt was made to open a Deposit Ledger and the only at tempt at keeping a departmental cash book was so amateurish as to be quite useless.

of shroffs

Official Report

素

Early in January it came to my No mention of the fee charg notice that a number of unsecur-

Mr. Pudney, mentioned that in ed.

his official report to the Financial ed ladies were handling monies Secretary, that on various occa- No reference to the date

of and that the monies they receiv-

verbally sions he had

report- Issue (from which the cur- ed were placed with those rency of the permit runs).

ed on the accounting of the De- supplied to the Bound and

partment and realised the diff- numbered back departmental after Treasury Pulties but he felt now compell- wards, according to European training so that it was impossible ed to report, as chief accounting

to verify or control the cash re-meer. So devised that the pasting of ceived by any particular indivi- the applicant's photograph on the dual. counterfoil would have caused the binding to burst long before the book was completed.

standards.

Scrapped

Forged Notes

both since the serial number printed in deep blue.

He stated that there was not a single member of the staff entrusted with co-ordinating and supervis- ing the accounts of the Depart- ment and work in general and he had suggested that Mr. Taylor should be appointed to organise the department's activities in the accounting respects.

It did not surprise me, there- fore, to find several forged notes amongst the cash brought to the "Eventually, on Treasury nd-Treasury from the Immigration vice, these forms were scrapped Department, including one of and the present

He had been informed that an system of spe- $100. cially numbered book hurriedly

ex-hair dresser had been engaged It was impossible to discover substituted. About the same time] who was responsible for the pre- and that the

as Secretary of the Department a system of records

financial part had was devised by me and accepted by the Immi- which was particularly

sence of the forgeries, one of

been entrusted to a lady cashier gration Officer, showing

obvious, with no security and a few 'un- quantities and serial numbers of

was secured' shroffs. There was no permits passing to and from in the

European on the accounts' side. At the same time the department. to be kept by officers complained of the conditions un-

shroffs He had tent several shroffs to the entrusted with:-

department and these reported der which they had to work. In lack of co-ordination, and the work view of these facts, I deputed difficult. The books kept were in- Mr. L. A. Barton, Treasury | sufficient and there was no vote the Immigration Office Cashier, to inspect and report on service lodger. Revenue point of view. His re- port is at 61 in Treasury file No. 33/26/20.

The custody of blank permits. The receipt of blank permits for completion and their completion, The receipt of completed per mits for signature and their signa-

ture,

The custody of completed per-

mits, and

from a On the question of permits, he found the names of the persons to whom they had been issued had not always been entered.

The issue of permits against the At the same time, Mr. A. J. G. receipt of the prescribed fees. Taylor, Treasury Accountant, re- I "This system

was designed to ported to me as in 63 in the same

System Devised

At the request of the Immigra- prevent permits going astray,' Treasury Alle. Owing to the tion Officer, he had devised a either by accident or design, and pressure of work in the Treasury

of blank permits with system to assist in ensuring that all fees due to the high rate of expendi-checking at the various stages. were duly collected and brought ture arising out of the war it was Since to account, and was simple in the not possible to spare a Treasury dual

the permits

serve the use of a receipt and for extreme, being merely a series of Officer as he suggested, but on

into entry

the

Wit- debit and credit

Colony, Books which my advice it was eventually ness stressed the importance of could be kept by any intelligent agreed to bring Mr. A. J. C. Tay- person. As will be seen

a strict system of control. later, Jor back from Taipo to endeavour Mr. Pudney complained that this system was only partially to restore order in the chaos. the stocia of serial number permits were not kept up to requirements owing to failure of the Immigration Officer not inform- ining him, in advance, of require-

carried out.

Mr. Taylor

"Deposit receipt forms, C3- pecially designed for immigration purposes, were then prepared by mutual agreement between my self and the Immigration Officer and with the Cash Books already recommended there seemed to be no reason why everything should not un smoothly.

Report To C.S.O.

In view of the revelations

ernment in the terms of 31 these reports, I reported to Gov-'ments.

in 1 He mentioned that once he S.C.O. Ale No. 2867/41. The had # desperate request for comments of the Hon. The Fin-supplies and found an adequate ancial Secretary to the Hon. The quantity existed in the store of Colonial Secretary, together with the Immigration Office. the latter's remarks are on page 9 of that C.S.O. Ale.

he Regarding deposits, found that these had been paid over to "The Immigration Officer was

Shortly after this occurred an various Officers but he was not event which I think should allocated the services of Mr. A brought to the notice of the Com- gathered from

be notified who they were. He J. C. Taylor, an officer of

the Immigration Senior Clerical

mission. At four p.m. on and Accounting

the Officer that it would be derogatory Staff with accounting experience,

afternoon of Sunday, January to their dignity to ask them for as an Assistant Immigration Of 26, that is to say on the after-security.

DS

officer-in-charge

the

at

cer, but he chose to send him to

noon of the eve of Chinese New He had been informed that de- Taipo

Year,

the Immigration Officer posits had been accepted in other Taipo, rather than to utilise his rang me up to say that his sup-than Hong Kong currency and services for the supervision of the plles of deposit receipt books had that some deposits had been re- accounts in their early stages.

run out. Could I let him have tained and refunded direct, to "But never

And once during all some more at once?

this. the depositors and had not been these preliminary discussions did although he was well aware that paid to the Treasury. the Immigration Officer

Treasury does not keep a reserve give

The difficulties had been aggra- any indication of the many thousands of applications he would receive, now the hundreds and may be thousands of deposits he would have to take each day.

me

And things began to go wrong from the outset..

The department accepted fees from applicants at the time of ap- plication for a permit, without the issue of a receipt, and such sums were not brought to account in

any way.

Money In Safe

stock of special departmental re-vated by the failure of the Im- ceipt forms, All the printing | migration officer to take advant- works were shut, and would re-age of the financially trained staff What could he do? main shut for several days. at his disposal. In his opinion

I

Special Series

had no alternative but to

the some of

senior members (European) were not suitable.

Crowded Office agree to his preparing a limited On Mr. Pudney's inspection he quantity on a duplicating ma- found a crowded office, a number chine, allocating a special series of people interrupting their work letter to this issue, personally ini- by continual movements and in or tialling each one and notifying der to avoid stopping the entire me and the Auditor of the quan- department he did not examine all tity thus prepared,

the records. The accounts were in At one time the Immigration

Although I have asked for it, I an unsatisfactory state and show- Officer Informed me that bia have not been informed as to how an appalling ineficiency. safo was full of money of an many were prepared whilst those Mr. Pudney, referring to his unknown amount, belonging to which I have seen bear, not the system, said he found it in opera- unknown persons, and that var-nitials of the Immigration off tion only up to the point it reach- lous drawers in the office were cer, but a chop which I am ined a senfor officer. The officer similarly full.

formed is his Chinese name. who signed it had only a "receipt

On February 3, I personally in-in" check. spected the Immigration Office. The state of affairs is best deɛ-. cribed in my minute.

Accounts were paid into the Treasury, without adequate sup- porting details as to what they represented.

I recall, In particular, an

Shortly after this it came to my amount of just over $20,000 pald notice, through unofficial chan In by the Immigration. Officer Tels, that a Mr. E. A. von" Köbza, for the credit of deposit. ao-styling himself the General Agent, counts, although he was admit of the Immigration Department, tedly unable to state from whom It had been received and const- quently, to whom It should be repaid.

was collecting revenue on behalf

*

He found that the storekeeper had several thousands of com- pleted forms awaiting claimants, without knowing the number or quantity he should have. The system ho devised was carried on tiil, January 25 when it wan abandoned.

The failure to maintain a record: of the Government and making of the permits made it impossible refunds or deposits and that,`fur- ther, claimants were being offl-

(Continued on Page 8)