Conclusions and Recommendations Regarding Department Accounts:

Obviously the recommendations which should be made for improvements in department accounting must look primarily to the removal of the more serious conditions found in many departments and institutions where entirely inadequate records are kept. In many departments (and institutions) complete installations of accounts is the only solution. Such installations would be far from satisfactory, however, if not made in such a way as to bring the departmental systems into line with the control system recommended. Large sums could be wasted in installing systems in institutions that would not apply under a centralized treasury system.

It is recommended, therefore, that installations of accounts in departments be undertaken in connection with the program for improvement in central fiscal procedure and not otherwise.

CHAPTER VII. EXPENDITURE CONTROL

The importance of expenditure control as a subject for consideration in its bearing upon the questions of fiscal administration already discussed, is sufficient justification for devoting a few concluding paragraphs to it, although most of the ma chinery of expenditure control has already been discussed in the chapters on the budget on auditing and on accounting. What has been said has referred primarily to the problems of the State as a whole, little emphasis being placed upon the problems involved in the administration of individual departments. In this chapter the departmental problems will be given first attention.

It is hardly necessary to say that the present procedure for expenditure control is defective in nearly all departments. In the large departments like the State Board of Charities and Corrections, the problems are especially difficult and the department officers themselves will be first to admit that they have not all yet been solved. In other departments and independent institutions, the problems are simpler, but in some cases so little thought and attention has been given to them that it is fair to say that the department head allows his organization to run itself.

The Organization for Expenditure Control:

In each department there is a distinct organization problem which affects all administration procedure including the fiscal procedure. A well organized department will have as its head an officer who is clearly recognized as the one in charge of the expending of the appropriations for that department. This officer should exercise control over the processes which result in incurring obligations. It is not sufficient for him to approve payments of claims which are complete before they reach him. How the department head can be sure to control the processes

the summary statement just described should be general statements relating to revenues and expenditures. All items of State revenues are of the greatest practical interest and the estimated amounts distributed by funds are essential to know. Statements of revenues for the preceding years, including partially estimated figures for the current year, are of equal importance for the purpose of comparison and in planning the revenue side of the budget. The general statement of any expenditures of all the departments of government, together with any non-departmental expenditures to be provided for, might be said to be absolutely necessary. The estimated or desired expenditures for each item should be shown with the distribution by funds. Corresponding expenditures for preceding years obviously are needed and should be shown suitably tabulated for purposes of comparison. These general statements of revenues and expenditures would give the totals. for the general summary previously described, and would. themselves be recapitulations from the detailed departmental and special statements.

General recapitulations according to objects of expenditures or budget classes would be useful both for budget and other administrative purposes. Other recapitulations and various forms of assembling data will suggest themselves when the work of preparing the budget is undertaken in earnest.

Numerous Unestimated Revenues and Expenditures: Obviously, definite amounts must be stated for each of the items in both tabulations of income and expenditure. The budget as now prepared, besides being indefinite as to revenues, contains two kinds of indefinite appropriations as noted above. The first is for expenditures from special revenue funds and the second for expenditures from the general fund of a character which makes it more difficult to determine in advance the amounts required.

Some of the items of the second class should be covered by a general State contingent appropriation (so-called "con

tingent fund"). In addition to the flexibility thus secured, further provision for the unexpected can and should be made by this means. When such an appropriation is made it is possible to a far greater degree than could otherwise be realized to set limits to expenditures that will enforce economy and still provide for unusual emergencies.

Limited Informational Value of the Detailed Schedules: It is obvious from what has already been said that the present budget cannot meet the needs as a means of bringing in complete and reliable information as to the work and requirements for funds by each State agency. It should be added, however, that the present budget does not even attempt to analyze or explain the requests for money. Each unit's request for a year is stated in a single figure. A budget classification is prescribed by law but is used by the Budget Commission only in the schedules of expenditures of the last year and not in stating the amounts requested by or for the departments.

In other States that lay claim to having a budget system, requests are analyzed with varying degrees of success. The problem of obtaining detailed information that will materially assist the Chief Executive or Budget Commission in making recommendations and especially the Legislature in finally arriving at the correct amounts to appropriate, is a difficult one which deserves to be ranked as one of the fundamental budget problems. It is a problem that can be solved satisfactorily only by extended study by a qualified budget staff supported by members of the Legislature who make the subject of financial administration their chief interest and field of service. So far nothing has been done in this direction.

Lack of a Budget Staff: The most serious faults of the present system, if it may be called a system, are attributable to the lack of a budget staff. The authors of the budget law may have contemplated the employment of the State Inspector and Examiner as budget officer, but they did not make their intention in the matter sufficiently clear. They did provide

the salaries which they receive. As a matter of fact, there are some classes of public employes connected with the government of this State who work long hours and continuously and who cannot be criticized for lack of zeal or application. On the other hand, there are many employes who deserve the criticism which is generally made and the losses which are suffered by the State on account of irregular attendance and short hours are enormous. Irregular hours are important causes of lowered morale in all branches of the service and a lowered prestige of the public service as calling which in the long run are more serious than the direct losses.

Timekeeping: The simple and ordinarily very effective means of securing regular attendance during the entire working day is to require that records of arrival and departure, and of hours worked each day, be kept for all employes, and that the original records giving the details be summarized on time reports for each pay period which are fully certified to by the subordinate officers who prepare them and by the department heads, and are used as supporting vouchers for the payrolls. It is believed that a law should be enacted requiring the preparation and certification of such final and summary time records and requiring that no payments be made for time not worked unless the absence is excused in accordance with the regulations for attendance control.

Attendance Control: The problems of attendance control are somewhat complex. The primary object is to limit absences for which pay is allowed so that the State will not suffer undue losses due to this cause. Another object becomes very important under the merit system of employment control. An employe's record as to attendance may be taken into account as one of the most definite evidences of his right to advancement.

In order to provide for the elimination of unjustifiable absences with pay and provide suitable penalties for unreasonable absences irrespective of pay, it is necessary to prepare a set of regulations dealing with the various classes of absence. and indicating how absences of each kind should be dealt