Archive Report
Archive Report
The Basic Importance of Municipal Accounts
Adequate accounting has long been recognized by business executives as basic to the successful operation of the modern corporation. It is no less essential to efficient conduct of the affairs of the modern municipality—although widely neglected by city administrators, and a subject of little interest to the general public. It took suicide by an official of the Detroit controller's office1 to arouse interest in that city's budgeting and accounting practices. Prior to that incident, there had been no public discussion of the city's accounting methods. Now the newspapers are demanding sweeping reforms and the Detroit News has suggested that the city appoint for a long term of years a controller with powers similar to those of the controller general ...