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DIVISION III.

ACCOUNTS, ACCOUNTING AND DISBURSING
OFFICERS, PUBLIC MONEY AND PROPERTY,
NAVY DEPARTMENT AND BUREAUS,
SERVICE, ETC.

Sec.

ACCOUNTING OFFICERS AND ACCOUNTS.

(See also DISBURSING OFFICERS and AGENTS.)

236. Public accounts to be settled in the
Department of the Treasury.
237. Commencement of the fiscal year.
250. Settlement of accounts within fiscal
year.

260. Reports upon appropriations for
the Departments of War and the
Navy.

273. Duties of the Second Comptroller. 274. Power of Second Comptroller as to arrears of pay.

Sec.

CIVIL

277. Duties of the Fourth Auditor.
283. Manner of keeping accounts of De-
partments of War and the Navy.
297. Auditors may administer oaths.
3673. Warrants, drawing and counter-
signing.

3675. Warrants, form of drawing and how
charged.

July 31, 1894.
Certified bal-

ances conclusive
on Executive De-

partments, etc.

R. S., sec. 191.

subject to revision by Comp

SEC. 8. The balances which may from time to time be certified by the Auditors to the Division of Bookkeeping and Warrants, or to the Postmaster-General, upon the settlements of public accounts, shall be final and conclusive upon the Executive Branch of the Government, except that any person whose accounts may have been settled, the head of the Executive Department, or of the troller. board, commission, or establishment not under the jurisdiction of an Executive Department, to which the account pertains, or the Comptroller of the Treasury, may, within a year, obtain a revision of the said account by the Comptroller of the Treasury, whose decision upon such revision shall be final and conclusive upon the Executive Branch of the Government:

or reexamination by order of Treasury.

Provided, That the Secretary of the Treasury may, when in his judgment the interests of the Government require Secretary of it, suspend payment and direct the re-examination of any account.

Upon a certificate by the Comptroller of the Treasury Certificate of of any differences ascertained by him upon revision the vision, how cer

differences on re

Auditor who shall have audited the account shall state an titied.
account of such differences, and certify it to the Division
of Bookkeeping and Warrants,

*

ments on Audi

Any person accepting payment under a settlement by Accepting payan Auditor shall be thereby precluded from obtaining a tor's settlement, revision of such settlement as to any items upon which conclusive. payment is accepted;

permitted.

but nothing in this Act shall prevent an Auditor from Suspensions suspending items in an account in order to obtain further evidence or explanations necessary to their settlement. When suspended items are finally settled a revision may-action

settlement.

upon

be had as in the case of the original settlement. Action upon any account or business shall not be delayed, Accounts not awaiting applications for revision:

to be delayed for revision.

Issuing war

rants, time to be

Provided, That the Secretary of the Treasury shall make regulations fixing the time which shall expire before a war- fixed. rant is issued in payment of an account certified as provided in sections seven and eight of this Act.

Auditors to preserve ac

.counts.

What decisions of Auditors to be reported Comptroller.

to

The Auditors shall, under the direction of the Comptroller of the Treasury, preserve, with their vouchers and certificates, all accounts which have been finally adjusted.

All decisions by Auditors making an original construc tion or modifying an existing construction of statutes shall be forthwith reported to the Comptroller of the Treasury, and items in any account affected by such decisions shall be suspended and payment thereof withheld until the Comptroller of the Treasury shall approve, disapprove, or modify such decisions and certify his actions to the Auditor. All decisions made by the Comptroller of the Treasury to be transmitted under this Act shall be forthwith transmitted to the Auditor or Auditors whose duties are affected thereby.

-of Comptroller

to Auditor.

Officers may call on Comp

sion.

Disbursing officers, or the head of any Executive Detroller for deci partment, or other establishment not under any of the Executive Departments, may apply for and the Comptroller of the Treasury shall render his decision upon any question involving a payment to be made by them or under them,

-when rendered, to govern.

Repeal of R. S.,

secs. 191, 270, See note 1.

Comptroller, Auditors, etc.,

which decision, when rendered, shall govern the Auditor and the Comptroller of the Treasury in passing upon the account containing said disbursement.

Sections one hundred and ninety-one and two hundred and seventy of the Revised Statutes are repealed.

SEC. 9. This Act, so far as it relates to the First Compnot new officers. troller of the Treasury and the several Auditors and Deputy Auditors of the Treasury, shall be held and construed to operate merely as changing their designations and as adding to and modifying their duties and powers, and not as creating new officers.

Transfer of duties to Auditors.

lished.

All laws not inconsistent with this Act, relating to the Auditors of the Treasury in connection with any matter, shall be understood in each case to relate to the Auditor to whom this Act assigns the business of the Executive Department or other establishments concerned in that matter.

Division of SEC. 10. The Division of Warrants, Estimates, and Apbookkeeping and warrants estab-propriations in the office of the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby recognized and established as the Division of Bookkeeping and Warrants. It shall be under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury as heretofore.

-to keep ac. counts of receipts

tures.

Repeal of R. S., sec. 313; R. S., secs. 283, 3675.

Upon the books of this division shall be kept all accounts and expendi. of receipts and expenditures of public money except those relating to the postal revenues and expenditures therefrom; and section three hundred and thirteen and so much of sections two hundred and eighty-three and thirty-six hundred and seventy-five of the Revised Statutes as require those accounts to be kept by certain Auditors and the Register of the Treasury are repealed.

See note 2.

Duties of Reg. ister.

The duties of the Register of the Treasury shall be such as are now required of him in connection with the public

Note 1.-(13) R. S., sec. 191, hereby repealed, is superseded by sec. 8, above, on the same subject. R. S., sec. 270, allowing an appeal to the Comptroller in postal accounts, is also superseded by the same section.

Note 2.-R. S., sec. 313, hereby repealed, prescribes the duties of the Register. The subsequent sentence appears to reenact paragraph "First" of that section.

debt and such further duties as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury.

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Requisition for advances.

SEC. 11. Every requisition for an advance of money, before being acted on by the Secretary of the Treasury, R. S., secs. 366, shall be sent to the proper Auditor for action thereon as 444, 3673. required by section twelve of this Act.

See note 3.

-to be

All warrants, when authorized by law and signed by the Warrants. Secretary of the Treasury, shall be countersigned by the signed counter. Comptroller of the Treasury,

-to be accompa

nied, how.

and all warrants for the payment of money shall beaccompanied either by the Auditor's certificate, mentioned in section seven of this Act, or by the requisition for advance of money, which certificate or requisition shall specify the particu- Appropriation, lar appropriation to which the same should be charged, R. S., sec. 3675. instead of being specified on the warrant, as now provided by section thirty-six hundred and seventy-five of the Revised Statutes;

how stated.

requisition,

and shall also go with the warrant to the Treasurer, who Certificate shall return the certificate or requisition to the proper tion. Auditor, with the date and amount of the draft issued indorsed thereon.

or

ac

when not re

Requisitions for the payment of money on all audited Requisitions, accounts, or for covering money into the Treasury, shall quired. not hereafter be required.

444, 3673.

And requisitions for advances of money shall not be R. S., secs. 366, countersigned by the Comptroller of the Treasury.

Revision of accounts pending Oct. 1, 1894.

SEC. 21. All accounts stated by the Auditors before the July 31, 1894. first day of October, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, and then pending for settlement in the offices of the First or Second Comptroller, or the Commissioner of Customs, shall be revised by the Comptroller of the Treasury in the manner provided by existing law, and the balances arising thereon shall be certified to the Division of Bookkeeping and Warrants.

Treasury to

SEC. 22. It shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Secretary of Treasury to make appropriate rules and regulations for make rules. carrying out the provisions of this Act, and for transferring or preserving books, papers, or other property appertaining to any office or branch of business affected by it. It shall also be the duty of the heads of the several, Rules, etc., by Executive Departments and of the proper officers of other Government establishments, not within the jurisdiction of any Executive Department, to make appropriate rules and regulations to secure a proper administrative examination of all accounts sent to them, as required by section twelve of this Act, before their transmission to the Auditors, and

Departments,

etc.

Secs. 12, 14,

above.

Note 3.-By Department circular, No. 145, of September 29, 1894, the Secretary of the Treasury made the following order: To the heads of Bureaus and Offices, Treasury Department, and Chiefs of Divisions, Requisitions Secretary's Office, Treasury Department: for advances;

It is hereby directed that, on and after October 1 next, all requisitions for advances how made.

to disbursing officers shall be signed by the head of the proper bureau instead of by the disbursing officers themselves; and

That requisitions upon drafts drawn upon the Secretary of the Treasury by consular officers shall originate in the office of the Auditor for the State and other Departments and be signed by him, instead of by the Comptroller, as heretofore.

opened.

for the execution of other requirements of this Act in so far as the same relate to the several Departments or establishments.

Claims not re- SEC. 23. Nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize the re-examination and payment of any claim or account which has heretofore been disallowed or settled. New account- SEC. 24. The provisions of sections three to twenty-three ing system in force, Oct. 1, 1894. inclusive of this Act shall be in force on and after the first day of October, eighteen hundred and ninety-four.

Repeal.

Title 7, chap. 1.

counts, where to

SEC. 25. All laws or parts of laws inconsistent with this Act are repealed.

SEC. 236. All claims and demands whatever by the Public ac-United States or against them, and all accounts whatever be adjusted. in which the United States are concerned, either as debtMar. 3, 1817, s. ors or as creditors, shall be settled and adjusted in the Department of the Treasury.

2, v. 3, p. 366.

See note 4.

Mar. 29, 1894.

28 Stat. L., 47.

That instead of forwarding to the accounting officers of the Treasury Department returns of public property entrusted

Supp. R. S., P. to the possession of officers or agents,

174-5.

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the Quartermaster-General,

the Commissary-General of Subsistence,
the Surgeon General,

the Chief of Engineers,
the Chief of Ordnance,

Note 4.-Settlements made of the accounts of individuals by the accounting officers appointed by law, are final and conclusive so far as the Executive Departments are concerned. Aggrieved parties can apply to Congress. (Op., I, 624; II, 302; V, 176.)

Adjusted accounts should not, as a rule, be reopened without authority of law. (Op., II, 625, 640; III, 148, 461, 521; IV, 378; X, 231; XI, 129.)

If duly settled, adjusted, and closed by the proper officers, upon a full knowledge of all the facts, and no errors in calculation have been made, an account can not be reopened without express authority of law. (Op., XII, 386; Browning, Ap. 20, 1868; see also Op., IX, 505.)

According to the general practice of the Treasury, accounts are never closed; and in neither the legal nor mercantile sense of the term is an officer's account with the Treasury ever "finally adjusted." (C. C., XIV, 114.)

The accounting officers in settling accounts and claims have a right to adopt the report of a committee in Congress as establishing the principles which are to govern them in the examination thereof. A bill is considered part of a report, and its passage a virtual adoption thereof. The report is in the light of a preamble to the law. (Op., I, 596.)

There is a difference between the construction placed upon an act by individual members in debate and the opinion of the committee having the matter in charge. Proper to look into the report of the committee in giving construction to ambiguous language in an act. (Op., XIV, 624, Williams, Feb. 21, 1874.)

The rejection of a claim, in whole or in part, by the accounting officers leaves the party free to pursue his remedy at law, viz, an action in the Court of Claims, although he may have accepted the portion allowed. (C. C., XVII, 288.)

A pure matter of account belongs to the Department; does not belong to the Court of Claims until it is within the range of judicial cognizance. Accounting bureaus were organized to settle accounts; the Court of Claims was established to adjudicate claims. Unless a case becomes such as to "involve disputed facts or controverted questions of law," it is an account; when it does it is a claim. (C. C., V, 5, p. 293). Note 5.-See R. S., sec. 225, as to oath of commanding officer in settlement of military to property ac. property accounts, and R. S., sec. 284, as to settlement of pursers' accounts for propcounts in War erty lost on public vessel. Department.

Regulations as

Note 6.-On October 6, 1894, the Auditor for the War Department officially stated that no regulations under this act "have been made which affect this office." By General Orders, No. 22, Headquarters of the Army, July 6, 1894, the following regulations are promulgated under this act:

By direction of the Secretary of War, and in conformity with the above act (quoted in the order), the following is published for the information and guidance of all con cerned:

I. All returns of stores or supplies will be rendered as required by regulations or orders, and will be forwarded within twenty days after the expiration of the accounting periods to the chief of the bureau to which the property pertains. Abstracts of purchases will be forwarded with the money accounts.

II. As soon as possible after the receipt of the return by the proper chief of bureau it will be examined in his office, and the officer making the return will be notified of all errors and irregularities found therein and granted three months to correct them. Suspensions or disallowances will not be made on account of slight informalities

the Chief Signal Officer,

the Paymaster-General of the Navy,

the Commissioner of Indian Affairs,

or other like chief officers in any Department,

by, through, or under whom stores, supplies, and other public property are received for distribution, or whose duty

it is to receive or examine returns of such property, shall

certified to

certify to the proper accounting officer of the Treasury Losses to be Department, for debiting on the proper account, any charge Treasury against any officers or agent intrusted with public property, arising from any loss, accruing by his fault, to the Government as to the property so intrusted to him.

tificate.

SEC. 2. That said certificate shall set forth the condition,Contents of cerof such officer's or agent's property returns, that it includes all charges made up to its date and not previously certified, that he has had a reasonable opportunity to be heard and has not been relieved of responsibility;

the effect of such certificate, when received, shall be the effect. same as if the facts therein set forth had been ascertained by the accounting officers of the Treasury Department in accounting.

how affected.

SEC. 3. That the manner of making property returns to Existing rules, or in any administrative bureau or department, or of ascertaining liability for property, under existing laws and regulations, shall not be affected by this Act, except as provided in section one;

relief.

but in all cases arising as to such property so intrusted Opportunity for the officer or agent shall have an opportunity to relieve himself from liability.

SEC. 4. That the heads of the several Departments are hereby empowered to make and enforce regulations to carry out the provisions of this Act.

Regulations to enforce act.

SEC. 5. That all laws or parts of laws inconsistent with Repeal. the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed.

p. 55).

for sea pay or

SEC.2. That hereafter the accounting officers of the Treas- July 28, 1892. ury shall not receive, examine, consider, or allow any claim 27 Stat. L., 282, against the United States for sea pay or commutation of (pp., 1892-1895, rations which has been or may be presented by officers of Navy. Claims the Navy, their heirs or legal representatives, under the commutation of decisions of the Supreme Court, which have heretofore been rations accrued before July 16, adopted as a basis for the allowance of such claims, which 1880, not to be accrued prior to July sixteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty.

SEC. 237. The fiscal year of the Treasury of the United States in all matters of accounts, receipts, expenditures,

which do not affect the validity of the voucher, but the officer's attention may be called to them. Whenever the errors have been corrected, or compensation has been made for deficient articles, and the action of the bureau chief is sustained or modified by the Secretary of War, the return will be regarded as settled and the officer who rendered the return will be notified accordingly.

III. If the necessary corrections in the return be not made within the prescribed time the facts will be reported to the Secretary of War. When it has been deter mined that the money value of the property for which an officer has failed to account shall be refunded to the United States, the facts will be certified to the proper accounting officer of the Treasury by the chief of bureau.

The provisions of the above act and regulations are applicable to all property returns rendered for any period of accountability subsequent to March 31, 1894.

Paragraphs 1327, 1328, 1329, 1330, 1332, and section 7, paragraph 1431, Army Regulations 1889, are hereby revoked.

allowed.

120 U.S.. 46, 51,

52; 125 U. S., 556. Commencement of the fiscal year.

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