APPENDIX. PUBLIC PROPERTY, MONEY, AND ACCOUNTS. 1. All officers of the Pay, Commissary, and Quartermaster's Departments, and military storekeepers, shall, previous to their entering on the duties of their respective offices, give good and sufficient bonds to the United States fully to account for all moneys and public property which they may receive, in such sums as the Secretary of War shall direct; and the officers aforesaid shall renew their bonds every four years, and oftener if the Secretary of War shall so require, and whenever they receive a new commission or appointment. 2. The sureties to the bond shall be bound jointly and severally for the whole amount of the bond, and shall satisfy the Secretary of War that they are worth jointly double the amount of the bond, by the affidavit of each surety, stating that he is worth, over and above his debts and liabilities, the amount of the bond or such other sum as he may specify; and each surety shall state his place of residence. 3. The chiefs of disbursing departments who submit requisitions for money to be remitted to disbursing officers, shall take care that no more money than actually needed is in the hands of any officer. 4. The Treasury Department having provided, by arrangement with the assistant treasurers at various points, secure depositories for funds in the hands of disbursing officers, all disbursing officers are required to avail themselves, as far as possible, of this arrangement, by depositing with the assistant treasurers such funds as are not wanted for immediate use, and drawing the same in convenient sums as wanted. 5. No public funds shall be exchanged except for gold and silver. When the funds furnished are gold and silver, all payments shall be in gold and silver. When the funds furnished are drafts, they shall be presented at the place of payment, and paid according to law; and payments shall be made in the funds so received for the drafts, unless said funds or said drafts can be exchanged for gold and silver at par. If any disbursing officer shall violate any of these provisions, he shall be suspended by the Secretary of War, and reported to the President, and promptly removed from office or restored to his trust and duties as to the President may seem just and proper. (Act August 6, 1846.) 6. No disbursing officer shall accept, or receive, or transmit to the Treasury to be allowed in his favor, any receipt or voucher from a creditor of the United States without having paid to such creditor, in such funds as he received for disbursement, or such other funds as he is authorized by the preceding article to take in exchange, the full amount specified in such receipt or voucher; and every such act shall be deemed to be a conversion to his own use of the amount specified in such receipt or voucher. And no officer in the military service charged with the safe-keeping, transfer, or disbursement of public money, shall convert to his own use, or invest in any kind of merchandise or property, or loan with or without interest, or deposit in any bank, or exchange for other funds, except as allowed in the preceding article, any public money intrusted to him; and every such act shall be deemed to be a felony and an embezzlement of so much money as may be so taken, converted, invested, used, loaned, deposited, or exchanged. (Act August 6, 1846.) 7. Any officer who shall directly or indirectly sell or dispose of, for a premium, any Treasury note, draft, warrant, or other public security in his hands for disbursement, or sell or dispose of the proceeds or avails thereof without making returns of such premium and accounting therefor by charging it in his accounts to the credit of the United States, will forthwith be dismissed by the President. (Act August 6, 1846.) 8. If any disbursing officer shall bet at cards or any game of hazard, his commanding officer shall suspend his functions, and require him to turn over all the public funds in his keeping, and shall immediately report the case to the proper bureau of the War Department. 9. All officers are forbid to give or take any receipt in blank for public money or property; but in all cases the voucher shall be made out in full, and the true date, place, and exact amount of money, in words, shall be written out in the receipt before it is signed. 10. When a signature is not written by the hand of the party, it must be witnessed. 11. No advance of public money shall be made, except advances to disbursing officers, and advances by order of the War Department to officers on distant stations, where they cannot receive their pay and emoluments regularly; but in all cases of contracts for the performance of any service, or the delivery of articles of any description, payment shall not exceed the value of the service rendered, or of the articles delivered, previously to such payment. 12. No officer disbursing or directing the disbursement of money for the military service shall be concerned, directly or indirectly, in the purchase or sale, for commercial purposes, of any article intended for, making a part of, or appertaining to the department of the public service in which he is engaged, nor shall take, receive, or apply to his own use any gain or emolument, under the guise of presents or otherwise, for negotiating or transacting any public business, other than what is or may be allowed by law. 13. No wagon-master or forage-master shall be interested or concerned, directly or indirectly, in any wagon or other means of transport employed by the United States, nor in the purchase or sale of any property procured for or belonging to the United States, except as the agent of the United States. 14. No officer or agent in the military service shall purchase from any other person in the military service, or make any contract with any such person to furnish supplies or services, or make any purchase or contract in which such person shall be admitted to any share or part, or to any benefit to arise therefrom. 15. No person in the military service whose salary, pay, or emoluments is or are fixed by law or regulations, shall receive any additional pay, extra allowance, or compensation in any form whatever, for the disbursement of public money, or any other service or duty whatsoever, unless the same shall be authorized by law, and explicitly set out in the appropriation. 16. All accounts of expenditures shall set out a sufficient explanation of the object, necessity, and propriety of the expenditure. 17. The facts on which an account depends must be stated and vouched by the certificate of an officer, or other sufficient evidence. 18. If any account paid on the certificate of an officer to the facts is afterwards disallowed for error of fact in the certificate, it shall pass to the credit of the disbursing officer, and be charged to the officer who gave the certificate. 6 P 19. An officer shall have credit for an expenditure of money or property made in obedience to the order of his commanding officer. If the expenditure is disallowed, it shall be charged to the officer who ordered it. 20. Disbursing officers, when they have the money, shall pay cash, and not open an account. Heads of bureaus shall take care, by timely remittances, to obviate the necessity of any purchases on credit. 21. When a disbursing officer is relieved, he shall certify the outstanding debts to his successor, and transmit an account of the same to the head of the bureau, and turn over his public money and property appertaining to the service from which he is relieved to his successor, unless otherwise ordered. 22. The chief of each military bureau of the War Department shall, under the direction of the Secretary of War, regulate, as far as practicable, the employment of hired persons required for the administrative service of his department. 23. When practicable, persons hired in the military service shall be paid at the end of the calendar month, and when discharged. Separate pay-rolls shall be made for each month. 24. When a hired person is discharged and not paid, a certified statement of his account shall be given him. 25. Property, paid for or not, must be taken up on the return, and accounted for when received. 26. No officer has authority to insure public property or money. 27. Disbursing officers are not authorized to settle with heirs, executors, or administrators, except by instructions from the proper bureau of the War Department upon accounts duly audited and certified by the proper accounting officers of the Treasury. 28. Public horses, mules, oxen, tools, and implements shall be branded conspicuously U. S. before being used in service, and all other public property that it may be useful to mark; and all public property having the brand of the U. S. when sold or condemned, shall be branded with the letter C. 29. No public property shall be used, nor labor hired for the public be employed, for any private use whatsoever not authorized by the regulations of the service. 30. When public property becomes damaged, except by fair wear and tear, or otherwise unsuitable for use, or a deficiency is found in it, the officer accountable for the same shall report the case to the commanding officer, who shall, if necessary, appoint a Board of Survey. 31. Boards of Survey shall have no power to condemn public property. They are called only for the purpose of establishing data by which questions of administrative responsibility may be determined, and the adjustment of accounts facilitated; as, for example, to assess the amount and kind of damage or deficiency which public property may have sustained from any extraordinary cause, not ordinary wear, either in transit or in store, or in actual use, whether from accident, unusual wastage, or otherwise, and to set forth the circumstances and fix the responsibility of such damage, whether on the carrier, or the person accountable for the property or having it immediately in charge; to make inventories of property ordered to be abandoned, when the articles have not been enumerated in the orders; to assess the prices at which damaged clothing may be issued to troops, and the proportion in which supplies shall be issued in consequence of damage that renders them at the usual rate unequal to the allowance which the Regulations contemplate; to verify the discrepancy between the invoices and the actual quantity or description of property transferred from one officer to another, and ascertain, as far as possible, where and how the discrepancy has occured, whether in the hands of the carrier or the officer making the transfer; and to make inventories and report on the condition of public property in the possession of officers at the time of their death. The action of the board for these authorized objects will be complete with the approval of the commanding officer, provided that neither he nor any of the board are interested parties; but will be subject to revision by higher authority. In no case, however, will the report of the board supersede the depositions which the law requires with reference to deficiencies and damage. 32. Boards of Survey will not be convened by any other than the commanding officer present, and will be composed of as many officers, not exceeding three, as may be present for duty, exclusive always of the commanding officer and the officer responsible in the matter to be reported on; but in case the two latter only are present, then the one not |