Page:Revised Codes of the State of North Dakota 1895.pdf/129

Executive Department. and shall not own, hold or control any stocks, capital or bonds, or the office of trustee, assignee, officer or employee of any banking, annuity, safe deposit, trust company, moneyed or savings institution or corporation created under the laws thereof. In case of vacancy or death, removal, resignation or otherwise, the governor shall fill the same by appointment. The governor is authorized to remove from office any state examiner who violates, or fails faithfully to discharge the duties of his office, and to appoint his successor who shall hold office until the end of the next legislative assembly, unless sooner removed as above provided.

§ 137. Duty to examine accounts of public officers. The duties of the state examiner are to examine at least once every year the books and accounts of the secretary of state, state auditor, state treasurer, clerk of the supreme court, commissioner of insurance, county treasurer, county auditor and other county officers of any county, upon request by the board of county commissioners.

§ 138. Duty to supervise accounts of public institutions. It shall be the duty of the state examiner to assume and exercise constant supervision over the books and financial accounts of the several public, educational, charitable, penal and reformatory institutions belonging to the state; to prescribe and enforce correct methods of keeping financial accounts of the state institutions by himself or duly appointed deputy, and instruct the proper officer thereof in the due performance of his duty concerning the same; to examine the books and accounts of all public institutions under the control of the state, and of all private institutions with which the state has any dealing, so far only as the same relates to such dealing, once in six months.

§ 139. Additional duties. It shall be his duty to order and enforce a correct and, as far as practicable, uniform system of book-keeping by state and county treasurers and auditors so as to afford a suitable check upon their mutual actions and insure a thorough supervision and the safety of the state and county funds. He shall have full authority to expose false and erroneous systems of accounting, and when necessary instruct or cause to be instructed the state and county officers in the proper mode of keeping the accounts. It shall be the duty of the state examiner to ascertain the character and financial standing of all present and proposed bondsmen of state and county officers. He shall require county treasurers as often as he shall deem necessary to make verified statements of their accounts, and he shall personally, or by deputy, visit said offices without previous notice to such treasurers, at irregular periods, of at least once a year, or when requested by any board of county commissioners, and make a thorough examination of the books, accounts and vouchers of such officers, ascertaining in detail the various items of receipts and expenditures; and it shall be his duty to inspect and verify the character and amounts of any and all assets and securities held by said officers on public account, and to ascertain the character and amount of any commissions, percentages or charges for services exacted by such officer without warrant of law. He shall report to the attorney general the refusal or neglect of any state or county officer to obey his instructions, and it shall be the duty of said attorney general promptly to take action to enforce compliance herewith. He shall report to the governor the result of his examination, which shall be filed in the executive office, as well as any failure of duty by any financial officers as often as he thinks required by the public interest,