REQUISITIONS FOR FUNDS-WARRANTS.

661. Every requisition for an advance of money, before being acted on by the Secretary of the Treasury, shall be sent to the proper auditor for action thereon as required by section twelve of this act.

All warrants, when authorized by law and signed by the Secretary of the Treasury, shall be countersigned by the Comptroller of the Treasury, and all warrants for the payment of money shall be accompanied 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 particular appropriation to which the same should be charged, instead of being specified on the warrant, as now provided by secţion thirty-six hundred and seventy-five of the Revised Statutes; and shall also go with the warrant to the Treasurer, who shall return the certificate or requisition to the proper auditor, with the date and amount of the draft issued indorsed thereon. Requisitions for the payment of money on all audited accounts, or for covering money into the Treasury, shall not hereafter be required, and requisitions for advances of money shall not be countersigned by the Comptroller of the Treasury.-Act of July 31, 1894 (28 Stat., 209).

REVISION OF ACCOUNTS.

662. 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 have been settled, the head of the executive department or of the 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: Provided, That the Secretary of the Treasury may, when in his judgment the interests of the Government require it, suspend payment and direct the reexamination of any account.-Act of July 31, 1894 (28 Stat., 207).

REVISION OF SETTLEMENTS.

663. Sec. 8. Any person accepting payment under a settlement by an auditor shall be thereby precluded from obtaining a revision of such settlement as to any items upon which payment is accepted; but nothing in this act shall prevent an auditor from 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 be had as in the case of the original settlement. Action upon any account or business shall not be delayed awaiting applications for revision: Provided, That the Secretary of the Treasury shall make regulations fixing the time which shall expire before a warrant is issued in payment of an account certified as provided in sections seven and eight of this act.-Act of July 31, 1894 (28 Stat., 208).

SALE OF SUBSISTENCE STORES.

664. Hereafter when under the Army Regulations subsistence supplies are furnished to another bureau of the War Department, or to another executive department of the Government or employees thereof, payment therefor shall be made in cash by the proper disbursing officer of the bureau, office, or department concerned, or by the employee to whom the sale is made. When the transaction is between two bureaus of the War Department the price to be charged shall be the contract or invoice price of the supplies. When the transaction is between the Subsistence Department and another executive department of the Government or employees thereof, the price to be charged shall include the contract or invoice price and ten per centum additional to cover wastage in transit, and the cost of transportation.-Act of Mar. 3, 1911 (36 Stat., 1047).

665. Hereafter all moneys arising from sales of subsistence supplies or stores, authorized by law and regulations, shall be covered into the Treasury to the credit of the proper appropriation and shall remain available throughout the fiscal year following that in which the sales were effected, for the purposes of that appropriation from which such supplies or stores were authorized to be supplied at the time of the sales.—Act of Apr. 27, 1914.

SETTLEMENT OF ACCOUNTS.

666. The proper accounting officers of the Treasury be and they are hereby directed, in the settlement of the accounts of disbursing officers of the War Department, arising between the twenty-first day of April, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, from which date war with Spain is declared to have existed, and the eighth day of July, nineteen hundred and one, inclusive, the date on which the last organization of the Volunteer Army was mustered out of the service of the United States, to allow such credits for payments and for losses of funds, vouchers, and property as may be recommended under authority of the Secretary of War by the heads of the military bureaus to which such accounts respectively pertain.-Act of Mar. 2, 1903 (32 Stat., 955).

667. The Comptroller of the Treasury, in any case where, in his opinion, the interests of the Government require it, shall direct any of the auditors forthwith to audit and settle any particular account which such auditor is authorized to audit and settle. Sec. 271 R. S., as amended by act of July 31, 1894 (28 Stat., 206).

668. All claims and demands whatever by the United States or against them, and all accounts whatever in which the United States are concerned, either as debtors or creditors, shall be settled and adjusted in the Department of the Treasury.-Sec. 236, R. S.

669. Sec. 8. Upon a certificate by the Comptroller of the Treasury of any differences ascertained by him upon revision, the auditor who shall have audited the account shall state an account of such differences and certify it to the division of bookkeeping and warrants, except that balances found and accounts stated as aforesaid by the Auditor for the Post Office Department for postal revenues and expenditures therefrom shall be certified to the Postmaster General.-Act of July 31, 1894 (28 Stat., 208).

SUITS FOR RECOVERY OF MONEY.

670. Whenever any person accountable for public money neglects or refuses to pay into the Treasury the sum or balance reported to be due to the United States upon the adjustment of his account the Comptroller of the Treasury shall institute suit for the recovery of the same, adding to the sum stated to be due on such account the commissions of the delinquent, which shall be forfeited in every instance where suit is commenced and judgment obtained thereon, and an interest of six per centum per annum from the time of receiving the money until it shall be repaid into the Treasury.-Sec. 3624, R. S.

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THE AUDITOR FOR THE WAR DEPARTMENT.

671. Sec. 3. The Auditors of the Treasury shall hereafter be designated as follows: The Second Auditor as Auditor for the War Department. * * * The designations of the deputy auditors and other subordinates shall correspond with those of the Auditors. And each deputy auditor in addition to the duties now required to be performed by him, shall sign, in the name of the auditor, such letters and papers as the auditor may direct.-Act of July 31, 1894 (28 Stat., 205).

672. This Act, so far as it relates to the First Comptroller 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 (to Comptroller of the Treasury, and auditors

for the various departments, etc.) and as adding to and modifying their duties and powers, and not as creating new officers.-Sec. 9, ibid.

673. The Division of Warrants, Estimates, and Appropriations 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. Upon the books of this division shall be kept all accounts 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.-Sec. 10, act of July 31, 1894 (28 Stat., 208).

674. The auditors, under the direction of the Comptroller of the Treasury, shall superintend the recovery of all debts finally certified by them, respectively, to be due to the United States.-Sec. 4, act of July 31, 1894 (28 Stat., 206).

675. 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. Sec. 8, act of July 31, 1914 (28 Stat., 208).

676. The auditors charged with the examination of the accounts of the Departments of War and of the Navy, shall keep all accounts of the receipts and expenditures of the public money in regard to those departments, and of all debts due to the United States on moneys advanced relative to those departments; shall receive from the Second Comptroller the accounts which shall have been finally adjusted, and shall preserve such accounts, with their vouchers and certificates, and record all requisitions drawn by the Secretaries of those departments, the examination of the accounts of which have been assigned to them. They shall annually, on the first Monday in November, severally report to the Secretary of the Treasury the application of the money appropriated for the Department of War and the Department of the Navy, and they shall make such reports on the business assigned to them as the Secretaries of those departments may deem necessary and require.-Sec. 283. R. S.

677. The Second Auditor shall receive and examine all accounts relating to the pay and clothing of the Army, the subsistence of officers, bounties, and premiums, military and hospital stores, and the contingent expenses of the War Department, * * * and, after examinations of such accounts, he shall certify the balances, and transmit such accounts, with the vouchers and certificate, to the Second Comptroller for his decision thereon.-Sec. 277, R. S.

678. All claims and demands whatever by the United States or against them, and all accounts whatever in which the United States are concerned, either as debtors or as creditors, shall be settled and adjusted in the Department of the Treasury.-Sec. 236, R. S.

679. Nothing in this act shall be construed to authorize the reexamination and payment of any claim or account which has heretofore been disallowed or settled.— Sec. 23, act of July 31, 1894 (28 Stat., 211).

680. That should there be a delay by the administrative departments beyond the aforesaid twenty or sixty days in transmitting accounts, an order of the President, or, in the event of the absence from the seat of Government or sickness of the President, an order of the Secretary of the Treasury, in the particular case, shall be necessary to authorize the advance of money requested.--Sec. 4, act of Mar. 2, 1895 (28 Stat., 807).

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681. The Second Auditor may detail one clerk to sign, in the place of the Auditor, all certificates and papers issued under any provisions of law relating to bounties; but the Auditor shall be responsible for the official acts of such clerk.-Sec. 279, R. S. 682. * * Hereafter in all cases of final judgments and awards rendered against the United States by the Court of Claims, and of final judgments rendered against the United States by the circuit and district courts of the United States, payment thereof under appropriations made by Congress shall be made on settlements by the auditor for the department or branch of the public service having jurisdiction over the subject-matter out of which the claims arose.—Act of Feb. 20, 1904 (33 Stat., 41).

683. Sec. 4. That so much of section five of the act approved June twentieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-four, as directs the Secretary of the Treasury at the beginning of each session to report to Congress with his annual estimates any balances of appropriations for specific objects affected by said section that may need to be reappropriated, be, and hereby is, repealed. And it shall be the duty of the several accounting officers of the Treasury to continue to receive, examine, and consider the justice and validity of all claims under appropriations the balances of which have been exhausted or carried to the surplus fund under the provisions of said section that may be brought before them within a period of five years. And the Secretary of the Treasury shall report the amount due each claimant, at the commencement of each session, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who shall lay the same before Congress for consideration: Provided, That nothing in this act shall be construed to authorize the reexamination and payment of any claim or account which has been once examined and rejected, unless reopened in accordance with existing law.-Act of June 14, 1878 (20 Stat., 191).

THE COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY.

684. Sec. 4. The offices of Commissioner of Customs, Deputy Commissioner of Customs, Second Comptroller, Deputy Second Comptroller, and Deputy First Comptroller of the Treasury are abolished, and the First Comptroller of the Treasury shall hereafter be known as Comptroller of the Treasury. He shall perform the same duties and have the same powers and responsibilities (except as modified by this act) as those now performed by or appertaining to the First and Second Comptrollers of the Treasury and the Commissioner of Customs; and all provisions of law not inconsistent with this act, in any way relating to them or either of them, shall hereafter be construed and held as relating to the Comptroller of the Treasury.-Act of July 31, 1894 (28 Stat., 205).

685. It shall be the duty of the. First Comptroller, first to examine all accounts settled by the First Auditor, except those relating to receipts from customs, and all accounts settled by the Fifth Auditor, and by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, and to certify the balances arising thereon to the Register; second, to superintend the adjustment and preservation of the public accounts subject to his revision; third, to countersign all warrants drawn by the Secretary of the Treasury, which shall be warranted by law; fourth, to superintend the recovery of all debts certified by him to be due to the United States, and for that purpose to direct all such suits and legal proceedings, and to take such measures as may be authorized by law, and are adapted to enforce prompt payment thereof.-Sec. 269, R. S.

686. The First Comptroller, in every case where, in his opinion, further delays would be injurious to the United States, shall direct the First and Fifth Auditors of the Treasury forthwith to audit and settle any particular account which such officers may be authorized to audit and settle, and to report such settlement for revision and final decision by the First Comptroller.-Sec. 271, R. S.

687. The First Comptroller shall make an annual report to Congress of such officers as shall have failed to make settlement of their accounts for the preceding fiscal year, within the year, or within such further time as may have been prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury for such settlement.-Sec. 272, R. S.

688. It shall be the duty of the Second Comptroller: First, to examine all accounts settled by the Second, Third, and Fourth Auditors, and certify the balances arising thereon to the Secretary of the department in which the expenditure has been incurred. Second, to countersign all warrants drawn by the Secretaries of War and of the Navy, which shall be warranted by law. Third, to report to the Secretaries of War and of the Navy the official forms to be issued in the different offices for disbursing the public money in those departments, and the manner and form of keeping and stating the accounts of the persons employed therein. Fourth, to superintend the preservation of the public accounts subject to his revision.—Sec. 273, R. S.

689. The Second Comptroller may prescribe rules to govern the payment of arrears of pay due to any petty officer, seaman, or other person not an officer, on board any vessel in the employ of the United States, which has been sunk or destroyed, in the case of the death of such petty officer, seaman, or person, to the person designated by law to receive the same.-Sec. 274, R. S.

690. The Second Comptroller may detail one clerk to sign, in the place of the Comptroller, all certificates and papers issued under any provisions of law relating to bounties; but the Comptroller shall be responsible for the official acts of such clerk.-Sec. 275, R. S.

PUBLIC PROPERTY.

ACCOUNTABILITY.

691. The Secretary of War is authorized to detail one or more of the employees of the War Department for the purpose of administering the oaths required by law in the settlement of officers' accounts for clothing, camp and garrison equipage, quartermaster's stores and ordnance, which oaths shall be adminstered without expense to the parties taking them. (In settling the accounts of the commanding officer of a company for clothing and other military supplies the affidavit of any such officer may be received to show the loss of vouchers or company books, or any matter or circumstance tending to prove that any apparent deficiency was occasioned by unavoidable accident or loss in actual service without any fault on his part, or that the whole or any part of such clothing and supplies had been properly and legally used and appropriated; and such affidavit may be considered as evidence to establish the facts set forth, with or without other evidence, as may seem to the Secretary of War just and proper under the circumstances of the case).—Sec. 225, R. S.

692. The Quartermaster General, under the direction of the Secretary of War, shall prescribe and enforce a system of accountability for all quartermaster's supplies to the Army or to officers, seamen, and marines. And he shall account to the Secretary of War at least once in three months for all property and money that may pass through his hands or the hands of his subordinate officers.-Sec. 1139, R. S., as amended by act of Feb. 27, 1877 (19 Stat., 242).

693. Every officer who receives clothing or camp equipage for the use of his command or for issue to the troops shall render to the Quartermaster General, at the expiration of each regular quarter of the year, quarterly returns of such supplies, according to the forms which may be prescribed, accompanied by the requisite vouchers for any issues which shall have been made. Said returns and vouchers after due examination by the Quartermaster General shall be transmitted for settlement to the proper accounting officer of the Treasury Department.-Sec. 122, R. S.