162 LAWS OF MARYLAND. [CH. 117

of the said Council, the said money to be paid out in the
manner provided by the charter for municipal purposes.

39. All expenditures made under appropriations by the
Council shall be countersigned by the budget officer. Ap-
propriations shall be allotted by the budget officer to each
agency or department on a quarterly (three month) basis §
of twenty-five per cent of the total appropriation per quar-
ter; provided, however, that for any given quarter the
budget officer may, with the approval of the Mayor reduce
or increase said given quarterly allotment of the total ap-
propriation, as the needs of proper financial management
shall require; provided further that at the end of the fiscal
year the sum of the four quarterly allotments so made
shall not be greater than one hundred per cent, nor less
than ninety per cent of the total appropriation as made
by the Council; and no disbursing officer of the City of
Hagerstown shall authorize any expenditure under a Coun-
cil appropriation except as covered by such quarterly
allotment or upon the specific authorization of said budget
officer; provided further that the allotment powers herein
bestowed upon the budget officer shall be exercised at all
times with complete responsibility on the part of said bud-
get officer to the Mayor; said system of allotments being
established to guarantee a more careful, orderly, and judi-
cious expenditure of City funds.

40. There shall be conducted annually a complete audit
of the finances of the City of Hagerstown. Such audit
shall be conducted either by a Certified Public Accountant
within the regular executive establishment of the Govern-
ment of the City of Hagerstown, or by some official per-
son, firm or agency outside the regular executive estab-
lishment of the Government of the City having a Certified
Public Accountant status. Said audit shall be at the behest
of the Council, and the results thereof shall be reported to
the Council and shall be made public in a fashion to be
decided by the Council. It shall be within the discretion
of the Council to decide whether the said audit shall be
conducted by a regularly constituted municipal agency or
otherwise; provided, however, that the head of any regular-
ly constituted municipal auditing agency shall be elected
by the Council, and any head of any such municipal audit-
ing agency shall not be removable by the Mayor or by any
other executive officer; and any head of any such muni-
cipal auditing agency shall not be responsible in any way
to the Mayor or to any other executive officer.