Section 43 Accounting reports; returns; forms

Section 43. The director shall annually furnish to the auditor or other accounting officer of each city and town schedules so arranged as to provide for uniform returns giving detailed statements of all receipts classified by sources, and all payments classified by objects, for its last fiscal year; a statement of the public debt showing the purpose for which each item of the debt was created and the provision made for the payment thereof; and a statement of assets and liabilities at the close of the fiscal year. The director may prescribe standard forms intended to promote the systematic accounting of financial transactions and the publication of the same in the city and town reports. He shall collect from the proper local authorities such other information pertaining to municipal affairs as in his judgment may be of public interest. All accounting and other officials and custodians of public money of cities and towns shall fill out properly and return promptly to the director all schedules transmitted by him to them. If a city or town fails within sixty days after a request has been made by the director to furnish the information authorized to be collected under the provisions of this section, the director may obtain such information through the use of his agents and assistants. The cost for collecting such information shall be borne in the manner prescribed by section forty-one for expenses incurred under sections thirty-five to forty, inclusive.