Except as in this act otherwise expressly provided, every contract for personal services and for the payment of compensation therefor and every expenditure or payment heretofore made by any officer of a city of the third class, and ratified or approved by the council of such city is hereby confirmed and declared valid and binding on the respective city of the third class, and where payment has not already been made, the payment of such compensation by the fiscal officers of such city of the third class is hereby directed and made mandatory, and no member of council or any fiscal officer of such city of the third class shall be liable to surcharge or to prosecution for any crime or misdemeanor for or on account of any such contract, expenditure or payment, or for voting in favor of the authorization, ratification or approval of the same, notwithstanding the failure to comply with the requirements of section nine hundred and two¹ of the act, approved the twenty-third day of June, one thousand nine hundred and thirty-one (Pamphlet Laws, nine hundred thirty-two), commonly called “The Third Class City Law”; that council shall prescribe by ordinance the number, duties, and compensation of the officers and employes of the city, and that no payment of compensation shall be made from the city treasury, or be in anywise authorized to any person, except an officer or employe elected or appointed in pursuance of law.

The provisions of this act do not apply to such contracts or payments where it is found either that such contracts, expenditures or payments have been made, ratified or approved fraudulently, or with intent or conspiracy to defraud, or that the city of the third class shall have suffered pecuniary loss as a result thereof.