30—Lancaster Farming. Saturday. September 20.1969 Our investigation into these ■ ■ 1 * "■ charges indicate* thus far that there are 26 ca»cs In which more ~ than ono duplicate payment was A View From The Governor s Office By Gov. Raymond P. Shafer indication of fraud in many of them. This Administration is taking action to prevent and crack down on any fraud or potential fraud in the State's public assistance program. Last week, I approved estab l.shment of a 20-member field auditing team to travel through out the State checking on the issuance of public assistance pay ments. The major purpose of this team will be to make certain the local county boards of public assistance are issuing checks on ly to those who qualify. In ad dition, the Department of Public Welfare has established new pro cedures to help us guard against fraud in the system. These new procedures are the result of an investigation into the reasons for the rapid rise in public assistance rolls and charg es of fraud in the issuance of emergency public assistance Success Seen For Fertilizer Industry A fertilizer industry leader sees a “period of promise” ahead for his industry, but success, he indicates, hinges on attention to better marketing, better busi ness practices and better handl ing of customer credit. W. J. Turbeville, President, Agnco Chemical Co., and Vice Chairman, Board of- Directors, National Plant Food Institute, spoke this week at the 12th an nual Northeast Fertilizer Con ference. He pointed out that fertilizer marketing programs must be or iented more toward customer, less toward products, and added “you'can’t 'sell tomorrow’s com mercial farmer with yesterday’s marketing skills.” This means, indicated Turbeville, that more than ever, success or mediocrity of a fertilizer business outlet will center on dependability, knowledge and initiative of the local dealei, not only in selling, but in servicing each account and following up on every sale Turbeville sees “an expanding realization among industiy to ward need for better business piactices in all areas, from better profit-loss statistics to handling customer credit ” NPFI, he indi cated, is set to help industry in developing programs to improve business data collection and knowledge of credit use for bene fit of both industry and its cus tomers The annual conference is spon sored by NPFI m cooperation with northeastern land-grant uni versities Pennsylvania Tobacco Prosptects Improve Production of Pennsylvania Seedleaf tobacco for 1969 is fore cast at 38 0 million pounds, am increase of 1 percent from the August 1 estimate If the current forecast materializes, the crop ■will be about 1 percent larger than last year’s but 16 percent less than the lecent 5-year aver age production. Yield prospects increased to 1,900 pounds per acre, 100 pounds higher than 1968 and about 110 above average. Tobacco harvest began as ear ly as the last week of July and nearly all producers began cut ting at least two weeks earlier than normal Tobacco leaves were generally large and heavy. Curing weather during mid-Au gust was ideal with low humidity Because of the heavy crop, a lot of good weather will be needed checks in Philadelphia earlier this year The reforms we are making are part of my Administration’s determination to make certain that the integrity of our system is maintained and that the possi mility of fraud is eliminated. On April 7, we called in the certified public accounting firm of Peat. Marwick, Mitchell and Company, in Philadelphia, after statistics showed- that emergency fund payments to Philadelphians asking for public assistance in creased by 289 percent from June. 1968, to January, 1969. In addition, we also launched an investigation into the charges of then Auditor General Grace Sioan that more than 800 Phila delphians had received duplicate public assistance payments. She charged fraud existed in hun di eds of these cases. In addition there were 50 cas es in which there was one dupli cate payment made to the recip ients. In 49 of these cases, resti tution was recommended by fak ing the duplicated amount out of future payments to the recip ients. In one case, prosecution has been recommended. As a result of this investiga tion several changes already have been made by the Depart ment of Public Welfare to im prove the system of issuing all checks. First: Emergency checks are issued only from the Executive Director’s Office of the Philadel phia County Board of Assistance. Second: A complete register of all checks forwarded to the Treasury Department for mail ing to recipients is mailed daily to the Philadelphia County Board of Assistance. This makes it possible for the Board to and a team of systems analysts verify immediately that a check from the Public Welfare Depart has been mailed to a recipient ment and the Governor’s Office and prevents claims of non-re- of Administration ha* been as ceipt of assistance. signed to implement them Third: The firm of Peat. Mar- The firm also made a review wick, Mitchell and Company has other county board operations recommended 16 ways to im- throughout the Commonwealth prove the methods and proced- to determine if similar situations ures of the Philadelphia office, exist but discovered none , ELMER M. SHREINER Trading as Good’s Feed Mill Specializing in DAIRY & HOG FEEDS New Providence, Pa. since laro Phone 786-2500 HERE ARE 6 WAYS WE COULD SKIMP ON THE FAMOUS lAMCO FORAGE BOX trr t i ». v t ** Replacee our Safe Use a £ Heavy Dnty Outfeed IS 00 ™ Mm Apron witb a danger- WORM DRIVE S auger. 3 Use common beater in place of our Spiral beater which peels off the material. No Bunching No Plugging Lamco is Safe - Smooth and Trouble free KINZER EQUIP. CO. Your Equipment Center in Lancaster County Box 23, Kinzer, Pa. * ' Phone 442-4186 PIONEER FEEDS Local Farmers Know a Good Feed When They Try It!
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