The governing body will proceed, moreover, with the certitude that the public has at its disposal the means of knowing in detail what its government is costing. The business of the year will be treated as a program of public service; and in the framing of that program every interested citizen and group of citizens will be urged to take part through the medium of public hearings. As the Westchester County Research Bureau says: “It would be easy to provide an opportunity for the filing of either objections or additional suggestions by taxpayers and for consideration of these at public hearing at the county seat before the board of supervisors by public notice of such filing and of such public hearing. Such hearings would doubtless speedily end such abuses as are exemplified in our bulletin on the Purchase of County Supplies. In the face of public objection, few supervisors would vote affirmatively for appropriations for such extravagant expenditures. The difference in result would be that between the action of an informed public, able to deliberate in advance upon proposed expenditures, and the absence of action of a public ignorant of the character of such proposed expenditures—the usual condition under present methods of budget provision for public funds.
“It is easy to prevent the official adoption over public objection of extravagant estimates. It is difficult to prevent extravagant misuse of public funds appropriated in lump sums, or to rectify such misuses after such expenditures have been incurred.”[24]
Complete knowledge and complete mutual confidence and understanding on the part of the public on the one hand and its agencies of government on the other—that is the big and seemingly reasonable promise of a budget system of the right sort. It cannot be put into operation in the fullest extent without those structural changes in county government with which we have already dealt.
AUDITING AND PURCHASING
A special field in which exact knowledge is particularly essential as a safeguard against theft is that of the auditor. To many a county treasurer the auditing demands of the government appear to be met when some basis of authority for a payment has been established. Sometimes even then the authority in question is not a legal one for often it may not be established by reference to the letter of the statute but by the precedents set by previous incumbents. Not “What does the law say about it?” but “What did —— do in such cases?” is apt to be the question uppermost in the mind of the official. How many millions of good money have slipped through county treasurers’ hands through such a procedure will never be known. The state examiner who has not discovered many an old-fashioned county where many such illegal payments have been made is rare indeed.
But such post-mortem checking of illegal payments is, for the most part, but a sad business. Modern standards of auditing organization and practice aim to insure more completely that the authority for payment shall be established before payment. The auditor should certainly be wholly independent of the disbursing officer and some authorities would also insist, of the appropriating body. Least of all should the auditing be done by the appropriating body itself or through its committees (as is true in some states) for such an audit through lack of first-hand consideration and definite fixing of responsibility rapidly degenerates into a perfunctory performance. It is even the practice in some counties to audit bills in full board by acclamation!
And since so large a portion of county claims are for material and supplies for use in the construction and maintenance of roads, bridges and institutions, the work of audit cannot fail to be closely associated with the purchasing system. The purchasing agent by whatsoever name called, is, after all, a special sort of auditor, dealing with a variety of commodities instead of funds. As in every other branch of public service, successful purchasing depends primarily on exact information, relating in this case, to standards of utility of various articles, the present and the probable future state of the market, the exact condition of present supplies, the honest fulfillment of contracts. Such information may come through stock ledgers, inspectors, trade journals or chemical tests.
In the county of Alameda, Cal., as a result of investigation, publicity and political pressure resulting in changes in the purchasing procedure in the county offices, the sum of $810,205 was saved on the one item of cost of elections in the years 1912-1916. Blank affidavits of registration dropped from $16.50 to $3.30 per thousand, election ballots from $22.12 to $1.65. On advertising, election proclamation, etc., there was a saving during the period of 1700 per cent. And this is by no means an unique experience. It is typical of results obtained under careful scientific purchasing methods in public work everywhere.[25] Accurate records, a study of unit costs, “pitiless publicity,” standardization and elimination of senseless waste and lost motion constitute the explanation. The Tax Association is now urging the consolidation of public purchasing agencies throughout the county in order to take advantage of the still greater economies which accrue to the large buyer.
OTHER FORMS OF ACCOUNTING
It is not only in its material interests that the county will be in need of exact information. Where the county comes into contact with the human factor the importance of working in the daylight cannot be overlooked. It will not do for the officer in charge of the poor to keep records “under his hat” concerning the inmates under his charge. Similarly, the probation officer will investigate and account for the delinquencies and the special needs of his wards, in a really informing way. And the sheriff, so long as he shall be the peace officer of the county, will furnish a record of crimes committed within his jurisdiction which will possibly lead to suitable preventive measures.