THEFT FROM STATE COAL DEPARTMENT

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 284, 25 August 1921, Page 6

THEFT FROM STATE COAL DEPARTMENT

FULL INQUIRY TO BE HELD

In reference to an editorial note in The Dominion yesterday concerning the peculations, amounting to over £2(100, by ’a clerk in tho Christchurch office of the State Coal Department, which em- , bodied a suggestion that in all such cases controlling officers should bo given tho equivalent to a court-martial, the Publie Service Commissioner stated that tho Public Service Act gave power to hold a full inquiry,- and the Assistant-Commis-sioner (Mr. P. Versehaffelt) had already been instructed to hold such an inquiry. In tho Christchurch case it was ascertaiued that the peculations had occurred by reason of the offender’s ability to manipulate the cash register, which recorded the money paid in. On such machines there was the ordinary record and the master record, and by gaining possession of both keys,-the officer vas able to alter both records by turning back (as was done when, the machine was re-set at zero). The difference between the money received and that recorded was stolen, and placed in the Post Office Savings Bank. Though the auditor did not discover the loss, that was not his fault, as he took the master record to be the accurate total of receipts. The trouble occurred through the officer concerned being allowed to gain possession of the master key. It was through tho alertness of tho officer in charge that the peculations were discovered.