The Public Works Administration is charged, under title II of the National Industrial Recovery Act, succeeding acts and regulations issued pursuant thereto, with the responsibility of seeing that allotted projects are constructed according to sound engineering practices, completed in substantial accord with approved plans and specifications and within financial and legal limitations of the political subdivisions or grantees of Federal funds, and that all financial and legal obligations are met. The program assigned to this Administration was essentially a peacetime effort and it has been substantially completed. Consequently the organization has been in the process of liquidation during the past 2 years in inverse proportion to the increasing defense and war effort. Such projects as are still operating are warconnected, as evidenced by the priorities granted by the War Production Board. As of November 30, 1942, there are 21 active or suspended projects on which construction work has not been completed with an estimated value of work not yet in place amounting to $31,766,865. So far as can be ascertained at this time, it appears that work will continue without complete cessation on approximately $18,979,308 of this amount, and that possibly $12,787,557 will be deferred pending the availability of such critical materials as copper for transmission lines and machinery for generating plants, or until such time as the projects may be determined to be essential to the conduct of the war and priorities granted. There are on the books a number of projects on which final payments have not been made or on which there remain unexpended balances for rescission. These are being closed as rapidly as possible but some of them involve litigation between the owners and contractors and the amount of the final grant cannot be determined until the claims are settled. There are also a number of Federal projects on which there may or may not be unexpended balances to be returned to the appropriation requiring bookkeeping transactions. The Administration is holding $89,763,928 in securities all of which involve transactions pertaining to the collection of interest, etc. The account with the Reconstruction Finance Corporation covering the sale of securities and involving a considerable sum of money which it appears should be re turned to the Public Works Administration appropriation must be settled eventually. Itemized lists of projects and statements of the accounts referred to will be found elsewhere in this presentation. It is impossible to forecast the exact period during which all of this work can be completed. Purpose of authorization. The amount estimated for the fiscal year 1944 is for the purpose of providing for salaries and expenses in connection with completing and liquidating the program authorized by the Public Works Administration Appropriation Act of 1938 (title II, Public Res. No. 122, 75th Cong.), as amended, and by prior acts, the completion of which will not have been accomplished by the end of fiscal year 1943, and to maintain the accounting records. The funds required for this Administration for the fiscal year 1944 should be made available not by appropriation but by authorization of expenditure from the balance of funds previously appropriated. Section 201 (f) of the Public Works Administration Act of 1938, 1938-43, provides that the Administrator shall reserve from the appropriation in title II thereof an adequate amount for administrative expenses of the Administration for the fiscal year 1940 subject to authorization, thereafter by "annual appropriation acts for the utilization thereof." The authorization should make the necessary funds available from the balance of previous appropriations designated by appropriation symbol 808/32005. Changes in organization. As the extent of the administrative activities of the Public Works Administration depends upon the amount of authorized work remaining to be done and as there can be no predetermined annual program, the relation between the organization which was effective during fiscal year 1943 and that proposed for 1944 is not susceptible to the usual analysis from a base by additions and deductions. The reduction in force has been drastic during the 3 years past as can be seen from the reductions in man-years of the administrative organization. During 1942, 476 man-years were used as compared to 76 man-years in 1943 and 5 manyears for 1944. The reductions in organizations have kept apace with the completion of the work program and the liquidation of project obligations. For the fiscal year 1944 the central-office organization will consist of a skeleton force in the central office to review audits, examine and approve grant requisitions, handle correspondence, and close out the accounts and other affairs of the administration. This skeleton force does not include any effectives for the functions of legal, servicing securities, finance, or labor relations, all of which are being performed by the regular staff, Office of the Administrator, without additional compensation or reimbursement. All division and section heads have been eliminated from the skeleton force. In the field, project engineer's offices will be maintained for those projects which are still under construction. However, the expense of these offices is reimbursable from project funds under agreements with guaranties in consideration of the extensions of time for completion of construction beyond the dates fixed at the time allotments were made. Changes in language. The sole change in appropriation language is in the date, in order to permit the administration to continue to perform its functions in connection with, the completion of the program during fiscal year 1944. Justification of estimate. In justification of the amount requested, the comparison of authorizations during the 3 years of liquidation is very significant. During 1941 the authorization was for $3,585,000, compared with $620,000 in 1942, $168,160 in 1943, and $27,000 estimated for 1944. In considering the reasonableness of the amount requested, sight should not be lost of the fact that several of the normal staff functions were previously taken over by the office of the administrator under consolidations involving the transfer of funds. As funds are not available for transfer for 1943, and none are included in the 1944 estimate, the functions are performed within the appropriation to the office of the administrator. List of Public Works Administration non-Federal projects estimated to remain incomplete July 1, 1943 List of Public Works Administrative non-Federal projects which will be substantially completed July 1, 1943, but upon which certain administrative work is to be done, such as acceptance by owner or final grant payment 1 These projects are completed, but final settlement is dependent upon the outcome of litigation. NOTE. In addition to the projects listed above, there are 40 projects on which litigation is now pending which litigation is not expected to be terminated prior to July 1, 1943. It is impossible to predict the out come of these cases, and therefore the administrative work connected therewith is not definable. ADMINISTRATIVE FUNDS REQUESTED FOR 1944 Mr. WOODRUM. Your request is down to $27,000 for 1944. Mr. WOODRUM. You have 5 departmental people and 33 in the field. Mr. GILMORE. Yes; the field people are on a reimbursable basis and of 22 uncompleted projects only 9 are active. The rest of them are suspended because of difficulties in securing priorities. Some of the largest are electrical projects and the Chicago Subway. A few are small projects undertaken by localities. More than 19 projects are in actual liquidation, relative to which there are some differences between the owner and the contractor, the owner being a city or a State. The amount of possible grants on those is $4,250,000, and on the uncompleted projects is $17,000,000. There are 66 projects in litigation. The potential grant balance to be paid is $16,800,000. Of the eighteen thousand-odd Federal projects, there remain some 250 on which action must be taken in closing out accounts. There are $131,642,494.83 bonds in the hands of the R. F. C. and $92,175,312.84 in the hands of the P. W. A. We patrol the projects covered by these bonds. There will be no bond purchases unless it should become necessary to protect the Government's investment such as an electric project, on which there was damage which might result eventually in disaster, such as happened at the dam in Nebraska, where we are not taking part by way of grant, but we did take $500,000 worth of bonds necessary to restore the facing of the dam. Forty-four of the 62 people who are in Washington are engaged in microfilming the records of P. W. A. The microfilming has been going on for a year and a half and it will be completed, including the screening of the remaining records, by the end of June. That will provide a saving of between twenty-five and thirty thousand dollars a year in rental of space for storing the records. Mr. WOODRUM. That is in the space which would be needed for records. Mr. GILMORE. Yes. Mr. WOODRUM. And those records are being destroyed? Mr. GILMORE. They are being destroyed. We would not be occupying as much space now if we had gotten prompt action from the Archivist in securing authority to destroy the records. We have about half the documents microfilmed and destroyed. MICROFILMING OF RECORDS OF PUBLIC WORKS ADMINISTRATION Mr. WOODRUM. I think your agency is one of the first, if not the only one, that has adopted microfilming, is it not? Mr. GILMORE. I believe the W. P. A. did a little microfilming. Mr. WOODRUM. Are you well pleased with it? Mr. GILMORE. Yes; it is very fine. Of course, I do not know exactly how easy it would be to use them in court. They could be reproduced also, of course, from the microfilms. Mr. WOODRUM. It possibly would involve some complication in court? Mr. GILMORE. Of course, they can be screened and might have a very effective use. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. What is the total for this microfilming work, completed, in dollars? Mr. GILMORE. For what year. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. I mean for your 1944 personnel. Mr. COMFORT. There is nothing in the estimates for 1944 for that work. REDUCTION IN PERSONNEL A review of the personnel shows a drop from 10,270 in 1939 to 2,862 in 1940. In 1941 we had 1,787. The 1st of January, immediately after Pearl Harbor, there were 597, of which 359 were in the central office, and 238 in the field. On October 1, 1942, there were 78 in Washington and 94 in the field. On the 1st of January 1943 there were 77 in Washington and 63 in the field. On January 16, 1943, there were 62 in Washington and 54 in the field. A part of those were already terminated but are still carried on the rolls because of accumulated leave. Actually there are only 111 people in active status as of today. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. One hundred and eleven, of which how many are engaged in microfilming? Mr. GILMORE. Forty-four. FUNDS AVAILABLE DURING FISCAL YEARS 1943 AND 1914 Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. You had $168,160 for this year? Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. You received no other funds from source? any other Mr. GILMORE. No other funds, except for personnel who were on projects and through contracts with the owners who agreed to reimburse us for their expenses. There is a provision this year for something like $100,000 to cover field reimbursements. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. For the fiscal year 1943? |