United States. Office of the Housing Expediter. Legal Division. Compliance Branch

The Compliance Division, successor to the Compliance Branch of the Priorities Bureau, was responsible for having investigations made to determine whether there was noncompliance with orders and regulations of the War Production Board and for brining noncompliance cases to the attention of the Board’s General Counsel for legal action. The Division checked large consumers of controlled materials at regular intervals to determine whether Controlled Materials Plan regulations were being complied with. It conducted special on the spot surveys of industries affected by certain War Production Board programs or orders that were especially important or regarding which there appeared to be considerable noncompliance. The Division also attempted to make a comprehensive survey of black-market operations in critical materials. One of the most important activities of the Division was to assist the industry divisions of the War Production board by determining through special investigations and surveys the effectiveness of the orders that they were responsible for administering. The Division continued in existence until the War Production Board was terminated on November 3, 1945 and was transfered to the Civilian Production Administration. As part of the Civilian Production Administration, the Compliance Division had sole authority to conduct investigations and surveys to ensure compliance with orders and regulations of the Civilian Production Administration. The Division’s field offices conducted investigations of suspected firms and submitted reports of these investigations to Washington. The Washington staff of the Division was responsible for analyzing and reviewing these reports and for determining whether cases should be closed or referred to the field for legal action. The field offices prepared cases returned by the Washington staff for presentation to the regional attorneys of the Office of the General counsel for legal action and cooperated with them in prosecuting of the cases. The Division was chiefly concerned with the enforcement of the Administration’s nonresidential construction limitation order and the housing priority order, the purpose of which was to control the distribution of lumber, plumbing fixtures, brick, and plywood. Other activities of the Division concerned the textile orders and inventory control orders. The Compliance Division was transferred to the Office of the Housing Expediter in April 1947. In 1948, the Compliance Division became the Compliance Branch in the Rent Operations Division. On July 10, 1948, when the Rent Operations Division was eliminated, the Compliance Branch was transfered to the Legal Division.