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(2) The practice of writing receipts in indelible pencil makes it possible for the entries appearing on the receipts to be erased and altered after their signature by the Cashier.
(3) The practice of entrusting the keeping of the Revenue Files to the clerk charged with the preparation of the receipts and the posting of the Collection Books, enables such clerk to falsify entries and thereby to conceal the fact that moneys, which should have been collected, have not been brought to account.
(4) The practice of utilizing loose leaf Revenue Files renders falsification by the Collection Book Clerk the easier as it enables him to re-write and substitute a page instead of having to resort to erasure and alteration.
(5) The lack of a check of all cash in the hands of the shroffs at the close of business opens the door to embezzlement and renders impossible compliance with Colonial Regulation No. 336. The paper check of the Daily Balances Reconciliation Statement provides no assurance that the moneys shown as in the hands of the shroffs will be placed by them in the safe.
(6) The security of $1.000.00 furnished by each of the six junior shroffs appears inadequate having regard to the magnitude of the sums which they handle, the more so if there is no check of the cash in their hands at the close of business on each day.
(7) While the Cashier is careful to sign receipts only for such sums as are brought to account he has not before him any evidence of the actual amount which should be paid. This defect is more apparent than real. While a single person, namely the Cashier, is charged with the duty of signing all receipts we consider it impossible for that person, without causing undue delay and inconvenience to the public, to ascertain by reference to assessment rolls and like records the fact that the amount shown on the receipt is the amount due to be paid. The receipts are in all cases prepared by persons other than those who receive the moneys and there is no evidence that receipts have ever been signed otherwise than for the correct
amounts.
(8) The absence of Ledger accounts showing the amounts to be collected and the collections separately in respect of each quarter renders it a matter of great difficulty to ascertain the progress of collections, and makes the Cashier dependant on informa- tion which can be obtained only from the Collection Book Clerks.
(9) The Defaulters Lists sent to the Treasury Solicitor and the Returns of items paid thereon are not checked by the Cashier, and the concealment of an item which had been paid but not brought to account might be furthered by the absence of such a check.
18. Turning to the procedure in force in the Expenditure Branch it will be sufficient for the purposes of this Report to indicate the machinery used for three classes of pay- ments viz: accounts rendered by contractors in respect of work done, personal emolu- ments of the staffs of Government Departments, and subsidies payable to Elementary Vernacular Schools. Much of the procedure is common to the three classes.
19. To illustrate the procedure in relation to payment of contractors' accounts, we take as an example work done by a contractor for the Public Works Department.
The contractor sends in his account to the Public Works Department where it is scrutinized by the Overseer and the Engineer in charge of the particular work. These officers. if satisfied as to its accuracy, initial or sign the account, which is given a number as a sub-voucher.
The sub-voucher number, the nature of the account and its amount are then carried under the appropriate head of expenditure to a Pay Sheet which is limited to items payable to the particular contractor. Such Pay Sheet is given a number as a voucher.
All the various vouchers which can appropriately be dealt with together are annexed to a Paylist on which the various payments due to the different contractors on the Pay Sheets are assembled under the appropriate heads of expenditure.
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