The only balance sheet provided to the administrator or to the legislator as a basis for judgment is one which leaves out of consideration _all assets other than cash, and all liabilities other than warrants outstanding, a part of the trust liabilities and the public debt_. In the liabilities no mention is made of about $70,000,000 special and trust funds so held. No mention is made of outstanding contracts and orders issued as incumbrances on appropriations; of invoices which have not been vouchered; of vouchers which have not been audited. It is, therefore, _impossible for the administrator to have in mind the maturing obligations to meet which cash must be provided; there is no means for determining the relation of current surplus or deficit_. No operation account is kept, and no statement of operations is rendered showing the expenses incurred--_the actual cost of doing business_--on the one side, and the revenues accrued on the other. There are no records showing the cost of land, structures, equipment, or the balance of stores on hand available for future use; there is no information coming regularly to the administrative head of the government or his advisers advising them as to _whether sinking-fund requirements have been met, or of the condition of trust funds or special funds_. It has been urged that such information as is above indicated could not be obtained, for the reason that the accounts were on a cash basis; that they _provide for reports of receipts and disbursements only_. But even the accounts and reports of receipts and disbursements are on a basis which makes a true statement of facts _impossible_. For example: All of the trust receipts and disbursements of the government, other than those relating to currency trusts, are reported as “_ordinary receipts and disbursements_.” The daily, as well as the monthly and annual statements of disbursements, are mainly made up from advances to disbursing officers--_that is to say, when cash is transferred from one officer to another it is considered as spent_, and the disbursement accounts and reports of the government so show them. The only other accounts of expenditures on the books of the Treasury are based on audited settlements most of which _are months in arrears of actual transactions_; as between the record of cash advanced to disbursing officers and the accounts showing audited vouchers, there is a current difference of from _$400,000,000 to $700,000,000, representing vouchers which have not been audited and settled_.