ROBBING THE STATE

Observer, Volume XXXV, Issue 12, 28 November 1914, Page 2

ROBBING THE STATE

Aid State-Aided Embezzlement

ANDREW COSTELLO, late of the Government Revenue Department, has gone to gaol for three years. He stole £12,679, and it took him eight years to do it. Andrew Costello is a criminal, but neither the present nor the former Government is accused of aiding and abetting him in his criminal career. The most amazing thing said at the trial was that Costello, apart from having stolen, twelve thousand pounds, led a respectable life. This was possibly advanced by counsel in mitigation. Morally, a thief of the size of Costello was incapable of doing anything "respectable." It was further advanced that this amazing person had "assisted in clearing up the embezzlements." Splendid chap! Makes your heart bleed with pity for him, doesn't it? Mentioned likewise that in the largest revenue department in New Zealand only two men were employed. In many departments in New Zealand the men are so thick they fall over each other in trying to escape the eye of the boss.

The only possible point of interest to the public who cheerfully hand over their hard won gold to the Government is that the Government is apparently without any system that will assure faithful administration of furndte. Thei utter absurdity of putting forward the excuse that the accused conducted his thefts in such a way as not to excite the suspicions of the Department is obvious. It is tantamount to saying that the. Department was in such a state of somnolence that it was impossible to wake it for eight long years. The continuous somnolence and absolute lack of method of a Government Department does not hatch criminals. They merely give criminals an opportunity of robbing the public. Andrew Costello is presumably the only criminal concerned in this amazing fraud but he should be flanked in the box by the persons whose lack of system made it possible for him to carry on his swindle for so many years. If Costello had. such luck the public is entitled to ask if there are any other officers of criminal tendency in the Government service and if they are being equally successful. We hear a good deal about the skill, the fairness, and the impartiality of the Civil Service Commissioners l who are represented as being argus eyed gentlemen who are up to all the moves of the game in which they are engaged. We have also many examples of the "tagging" of balance sheets by the great accountancy expert in Wellington.

If it is easy for one criminal to escape so many experts for eight years it is equally easy for a dozen other criminal public servants to be living in the lap of luxury on public money. Now that Costello is'laid by the heels after hoodwinking an already blind department for eight years the Government, in order to convince the public that its money will be faithfully looked after, must overhaul the whole system. Counsel in their cases always mention a man's salary if it is small m order to prove that a man may.be tempted to. steal because his employers are mean. Low wages do not make dishonest men. Men who are dishonest with £150 a year are dishonest when they get £5,000. One fears that the Government system of espionage and check is so complicated that any person of mgenuitv can crawl through the mazes, it will be interesting to know if there are .any other young clerks in New Zealand who have £150,000 to handle and if in their case as in Costello's "there is no check on this year s amounts!." The judgie who heard the case said "I can't' understand how it was that he was not found out before." For the answer one. must examine a few ardent sleepers who wake up to grasp large salaries once a month. They should be prodded into life between pay-days.