may appoint, may examine any foreign association transacting or applying for admission to transact business in this state. The insurance commissioner may employ assistants for the purpose of such examination, and he, or any person he may appoint, shall have free access to all the books, papers and documents that relate to the business of the association, and may summon and qualify as witnesses under oath and examine its officers, agents and employees and other persons in relation to the affairs, transactions and conditions of the association. He may, in his discretion, accept in lieu of such examination the examination of the insurance department of the state, territory, district, province or country where such association is organized. All examinations made under the provisions of this section shall be made at the expense of the association examined, but the expenses of any examination shall not exceed two hundred dollars. If any such association or its officers refuse to submit to such examination, or to comply with the provisions of this section relating thereto, the authority of such association to transact business in this state should be revoked until satisfactory evidence is furnished the insurance commissioner relating to the condition and affairs of the association, and during such revocation the association shall not transact any business in this state.

Sec. 32. When the insurance commissioner on investigation is satisfied that any foreign association transacting business under this act has failed to comply with the provisions of this act or is insolvent, he may, after having first given reasonable notice to the chief executive officers of the said association, revoke the certificate of authority granted to it, and shall cause notification thereof to be published in one or more newspapers of general circulation, and no new business shall thereafter be done by it or its agents in this state while such default or disability continues, or until its authority to do business is restored by the insurance commissioner: provided, that.nothing in this act shall prevent such association from applying to a court of competent jurisdiction, by mandamus or otherwise, to compel said insurance commissioner to issue such certificate or to restrain him from revoking same, if such court, in its discretion, should determine that said association was entitled, under the law, to have said certificate issued to it.

Sec. 33. Any person, officer, member or examining physician who shall knowingly or willingly make any false or fraudulent state

ment in or with reference to any applicant for membership, or for the purpose of obtaining money from or benefit in any association transacting business under this chapter, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars, or be imprisoned in the county jail for not less than thirty days nor more than one year, or both, in the discretion of the court; and any person who shall wilfully make a false statement of any material fact or thing in a sworn statement as to the death or disability of a certificate holder in any such association, for the purpose of procuring payment of a benefit named in the certificate of such holder, and any person who shall wilfully make any false statement in any verified report or declaration under oath required or authorized by this chapter, shall be guilty of perjury, and shall be punished accordingly.

Sec. 34. Any person who shall solicit membership for or in any manner assist in procuring membership in any association not licensed to do business in this state, or who shall solicit membership for or in any manner assist in procuring membership in any association not authorized as herein provided to do business as herein defined in this state, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not less than fifty or more than two hundred dollars.

Any association, or any officer, agent or employee thereof neglecting or refusing to comply with or violating any of the provisions of this chapter, the penalty for which neglect, refusal or violation is not specified in this section, shall be fined not exceeding two hundred dollars upon conviction thereof.

Sec. 35. The word "association" as used in this chapter shall be taken and construed as meaning fraternal beneficiary corporation, society, order or voluntary association as defined by this chapter. The words "domestic association" shall be taken and construed as meaning a fraternal beneficiary corporation, society, order or voluntary association organized or incorporated under the laws of this state. The words "foreign association" shall be taken and construed as meaning a fraternal beneficiary corporation, society or voluntary association organized or incorporated under the laws of another state, territory, province or country. The word "state" as used in this chapter shall be taken and construed as meaning "state," "territory," "district," "country or province." All provisions of each section of

this chapter, except as otherwise provided shall be taken and construed as applying to both domestic and foreign associations.

All acts, or parts of acts, inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed. repealed.

(Senate Bill No. 4.)

CHAPTER 33.

AN ACT to provide for the inspection and supervision of public offices, and to establish a uniform system of public accounting, auditing and reporting.

[Passed February 26, 1908. In effect January 1, 1909. Approved March 3, 1908.]

to whom and when shall he pay over the amount so collected. Power of chief inspector or person appointed by him to examine into financial affairs of every public office; penalty if person refuse to testify in regard to any matter, etc.; report of examination to be made in duplicate; if chief inspector find upon examination malfeasance, etc., in office, what then.

Who to pay cost of service or act
performed by chief inspector un-
der provisions of this chapter:
no per diem compensation allowed
chief inspector; money received
by chief inspector to be deposited
in state treasury; how disbursed;
how cost of examination recov-
ered, where made necessary by
wilful fault of any officer or em-
ployee.

Chief inspector may appoint assist-
ants to perform duties required
under this act.
Inconsistent acts repealed.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

Sec. 1. The state tax commissioner shall be ex officio the chief inspector and supervisor of public offices, and as such officer (hereafter called the chief inspector) he shall have the power and authority and perform the duties hereafter set forth. He shall have such assistants and clerical help and allowances as may be necessary to enable him to carry out the purposes of this act.

Sec. 2. The chief inspector shall formulate, prescribe and install a system of accounting and reporting in conformity with the pro

visions of this act, which shall be uniform for all public offices (including district offices and justices of the peace), and for all public accounts of the same class, and which shall exhibit true accounts and detailed statements of all public funds collected, received and expended for any purpose whatever by all public officers, employees or other persons. Such accounts shall show the receipt, use and disposition of all public property, and the income (if any) derived therefrom, and of all sources of public income, and the amounts due and received from each source, all receipts, vouchers and other documents kept or that may be required to be kept and necessary to isolate and prove the validity of every transaction, and all statements and reports made or required to be made for the internal administration of the office to which they pertain, and all reports published or that may be required to be published for the information of the people regarding any and all details of the financial administration of public affairs. The system of accounting prescribed and formulated by the chief inspector and any changes made therein from time to time shall, before it becomes operative, be approved by the board of public works and such system so prescribed shall not go into effect until January one, ninteen hundred and nine, but in the meantime the chief inspector shall formulate the system.

Sec. 3. Separate accounts shall be kept for every appropriation or fund made or levied by a taxing body, showing date and manner of each payment made out of the funds provided by such appropriation or levy, the name, address and vocation of each person, organization, corporation or association to whom paid, and for what purpose paid. Separate accounts shall be kept for each department, public improvement, undertaking, institution and public service industry under the jurisdiction of every taxing body and of the state; and all service rendered by or property transferred from one department, public improvement, undertaking, institution or public service industry to another shall be paid for at its true and full value by the department, public improvement, undertaking, institution or public service industry receiving the same; and no department, public improvement, undertaking, institution or public service industry shall benefit in any financial manner whatever by an appropriation or fund made for the support of another department, public improvement, undertaking, institution or public service industry. All unexpended balances or appropriations shall be transferred to the credit of the fund from

which originally appropriated or levied whenever the account with an appropriation is closed.

Sec. 4. Separate accounts shall be kept for every public service industry, which shall show the true and entire cost of the ownership and operation thereof, the amount collected annually by general or special taxation for services rendered to the public and the amount and character of the service rendered therefor, and the amount collected annually from private users (if any) for service rendered to them, and the amount and character of the service rendered therefor. Sec. 5. The chief inspector shall require from every taxing body and public institution financial reports covering a full period of each fiscal year, in accordance with the forms and methods prescribed by him, which shall be uniform for all accounts of the same class. Such reports shall contain an accurate statement in summarized form of all collections made by or receipts received by the officers from all sources, all accounts due the public but not collected, and of all expenditures for every purpose, and by what authority authorized, and also:

(a) A statement of all costs of ownership and operation and of all income of each and every public service industry owned and operated by a municipality.

(b) A statement of the entire public debt of every taxing body to which power has been delegated by the state to create a public debt, showing the purpose for which each item of the debt was created, the provisions made for the payment of the debt, together with such other information as may be required by the chief inspector.

Such reports shall be certified as to their correctness by the chief inspector or by his assistant appointed by him for the purpose. Their substance shall be published in a biennial volume of comparative statistics that shall be issued for each class of accounts at the expense of the state as a public document, and shall be submitted by the chief inspector to the governor for transmittal to the legislature. The chief inspector shall make report to the governor at any time and on any subject under his jurisdiction that the governor may order.

Sec. 6. It shall be the duty of every public officer and employee to keep all accounts of his office in the form prescribed and to make all reports required under the provisions of this act by the chief inspector. Refusal or neglect to perform these duties shall subject the person offending to removal from office.