Foreign News: Bad Bookkeeping

Before an assembly of the Central Commission of the Communist Party at Moscow, M. Stelmachovics, Soviet Secretary of Finance, presented last week an alarming sheaf of figures bearing upon the recent increase in embezzlements committed within the Soviet Union.

Said M. Stelmachovics: “The rapid economic recovery of Russia during the past twelve months has been attended by an enormous increase in the number of cases of embezzlement and graft reported by the police. . . . At Moscow such crimes have increased eleven fold in twelve months, and in the provinces the figure is nearly 20 fold. . . . This situation has been brought about by slipshod administrative and financial control, and by lack of care in the selection of employes. . . . 41% of the culprits had been employed less than six months . . . [and] 58% of them were addicted to drink or debauched living. . . . Bookkeeping methods have been so lax that many of the embezzlements were discovered only when trusted employes were observed to be spending too readily.”

The Commission is reported to have determined upon “vigorous measures.”