Public Property, Money, and Accounts.

chief of the department to which the property belonged. The net proceeds will be applied as the Secretary of War may direct.

1033. No officer making returns of property shall drop from his return any public property as worn out or unserviceable until it has been condemned, after proper inspection, and ordered to be so dropped.

1034. An officer issuing stores shall deliver or transmit to the receiving officer an exact list of them in duplicate invoices, and the receiving officer shall return him duplicate receipts.

1035. When an officer to whom stores are forwarded has reason to suppose them miscarried, he shall promptly inform the issuing and forwarding officer, and the bureau of the department to which the property appertains.

1036. When stores received do not correspond in amount or quality with the invoice, they will be examined by a Board of Survey, and a copy of the report of the board be communicated to the proper bureau, to the issuing and forwarding officer, and to the officer authorized to pay the transportation account. Damages recovered from the carrier or other party liable, will be refunded to the proper department.

1037. On the death of any officer in charge of public property or money, the commanding officer shall appoint a Board of Survey to take an inventory of the same, which he shall forward to the proper bureau of the War Department, and he shall designate an officer to take charge of the said property or money till orders in the case are received from the proper authority.

1038. When an officer in charge of public property is removed from the care of it, the commanding officer shall designate an officer to receive it, or take charge of it himself, till a successor be regularly appointed. Where no officer can remain to receive it, the commanding officer will take suitable means to secure it, and report the facts to the proper authority.

1039. Every officer having public money to account for, and failing to render his account thereof quarter-yearly, with the vouchers necessary to its correct and prompt settlement, within three months after the expiration of the quarter if resident in the United States, and within six months if resident in a foreign country, will be promptly dismissed by the President, unless he shall explain the default to the satisfaction of the President. (Act January 31, 1823.)

1040. Every officer intrusted with public money or property shall render all prescribed returns and accounts to the bureau of the department in which he is serving, where all such returns and accounts shall pass through a rigid administrative scrutiny before the money accounts

Contracts and Purchases.

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are transmitted to the proper offices of the Treasury Department for settlement.

1041. The head of the bureau shall cause his decision on each account to be endorsed on it. He shall bring to the notice of the Secretary of War all accounts and matters of account that require or merit it. When an account is suspended or disallowed, the bureau shall notify it to the officer, that he may have early opportunity to submit explanations or take an appeal to the Secretary of War.

1042. When an account is suspended or disallowed in the proper office of the Treasury Department, or explanation or evidence required from the officer, it shall be promptly notified to him by the head of the military bureau. And all vouchers, evidence, or explanation returned by him to the Treasury Department shall pass through the bureau.

1043. Chiefs of the disbursing departments shall, under the direction of the Secretary of War, designate, as far as practicable, the places where the principal contracts and purchases shall be made and supplies procured for distribution.

1044. All purchases and contracts for supplies or services for the army, except personal services, when the public exigencies do not require the immediate delivery of the article or performance of the service, shall be made by advertising a sufficient time previously for proposals respecting the same.

1045. The officer advertising for proposals shall, when the intended contract or purchase is considerable, transmit forthwith a copy of the advertisement and report of the case to the proper bureau of the War Department.

1046. Contracts will be made with the lowest responsible bidder, and purchases from the lowest bidder who produces the proper article. But when such lowest bids are unreasonable, they will be rejected, and bids again invited by public notice; and all bids and advertisements shall be sent to the bureau.

1047. When sealed bids are required, the time of opening them shall be specified, and bidders have privilege to be present at the opening.

1048. When immediate delivery or performance is required by the public exigency, the article or service required may be procured by open purchase or contract at the places and in the mode in which such articles are usually bought and sold, or such services engaged, between individuals.

1049. Contracts shall be made in quadruplicate; one to be kept by the officer, one by the contractor, and two to be sent to the military bureau, one of which for the office of the Second Comptroller of the Treasury.

1050. The contractor shall give bond, with good and sufficient security, for the true and faithful performance of his contract; and each surety shall state his place of residence.

1051. An express condition shall be inserted in contracts that no member of Congress shall be admitted to any share or part therein, or any benefit to arise therefrom.

1052. No contract shall be made except under a law authorizing it, or an appropriation adequate to its fulfilment, except contracts by the Secre tary of War for the subsistence or clothing of the army, or the Quartermaster's Department, which shall not exceed the necessities of the current year.

1053. It is the duty of every commanding officer to enforce a rigid economy in the public expenses.

1054. The commander of a geographical district or department shall require abstracts to be rendered to him, at least once in each quarter, by every officer under his orders who is charged with the care of public property or the disbursement of public money, showing all property received, issued, and expended by the officer rendering the account, and the property remaining on hand, and all moneys received, paid, or contracted to be paid by him, and the balances remaining in his hands; and where such officer is serving under any intermediate commander, as of the post, regiment, &c., the abstracts shall be revised by such commander; and both the accounting officer and the commanding officer shall accompany the abstracts with full explanations of every circumstance that may be necessary to a complete understanding, by the commander of the department, of all the items on the abstracts. These abstracts, where the accounting officer is serving in more than one staff department, will be made separately for each.

1055. The commander of the department shall promptly correct all Irregularities and extravagances which he may discover. He shall also forward, as soon as practicable, the money abstracts to the bureau of the War Department to which the accounts appertain, with such remarks as may be necessary to explain his opinions and action thereon.

1056. All estimates for supplies of property or money for the public service within a department shall be forwarded through the commander of the department, and carefully revised by him. And all such estimates shall go through the immediate commander, if such there be, of the officer rendering the estimate, as of the post or regiment, who shall be required by the department commander to revise the estimates for the service of his own command.

1057. The administrative control exercised by department commanders shall, when troops are in the field, devolve on the commanders of

Signal Officer.

divisions; or, when the co nmand is less than a division, on the commander of the whole.

1058. No land shall be purchased for the United States except under a law authorizing such purchase.

1059. No public money shall be expended for the purchase of any land, nor for erecting armories, arsenals, forts, fortifications, or other permanent public buildings, until the written opinion of the Attorney-General shall be had in favor of the validity of the title to the land or site, nor, if the land be within any State of the United States, until a cession of the jurisdiction by the Legislature of the State.

1060. No permanent buildings for the army, as barracks, quarters, hospitals, store-houses, offices, or stables, or piers, or wharves, shall be erected but by order of the Secretary of War, and according to the plan directed by him, and in consequence of appropriations made by law. And no alteration shall be made in any such public building without authority from the War Department.

1061. Complete title papers, with full and exact maps, plans, and drawings of the public lands purchased, appropriated, or designed for permanent military fortifications, will be collected, recorded, and filed in the Bureau of the Corps of Engineers; of the public lands appropriated or designated for armories, arsenals, and ordnance depôts, will be collected, recorded, and filed in the Ordnance Bureau; of all other land belonging to the United States, and under the charge of the War Department for barracks, posts, cantonments, or other military uses, will be collected, recorded, and filed in the office of the Quartermaster-General of the army. 1062. A copy of the survey of the land at each post, fort, arsenal, and depôt, furnished from the proper bureau, will be carefully preserved in the office of the commanding officer.

SIGNAL OFFICER.

1063. The signal officer shall have charge, under the direction cf the Secretary of War, of all signal duty, and of all books, papers, and apparatus connected therewith.