The inquiry instituted by the Works Committee of the London
County Council into the administration of their Department shows that there has been a systematic falsifica- tion of the accounts by the subordinate officials. The Com- mittee find that since April, 1895, a system of deception has been practised which involved frequent instances of "(1) falsely signed and bogus transfers of materials from one job to another ; (2) transfers of materials valued at altogether unwarranted prices ; (3) incorrect appropriation of invoices to a job when the goods were not used ; (4) materials sent from stock and not debited to the job ; (5) the deliberate alteration up and down of the ascertained cost of a job for purposes of so-called departmental advantage." That is, as one of the witnesses put it, "when we found we were going to have a loss, we took the profit from one job and gave it to another ; it was a system of levelling up and down." Though the Committee find that there was no corruption, and that no one made any personal profit or put the Council to any loss, they advise that the officials who committed the acts of deception shall be dismissed. This advice has, it is needless to say, been adopted by the Council. The matter, however, cannot stop here. It is essential that an entirely independent body, such as a Royal Commission, should thoroughly examine into the whole matter. When its officials can thus wantonly deceive the Council there must clearly be something very wrong.
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