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CHAPTER XVI.

PAY OFFICERS.

Assignment to

745. In general, the higher and more important duties of pay officers will be assigned to the senior grades. Passed assistant and duty. assistant paymasters may, when required, be assigned as assistants to pay officers of a higher grade.

746. (1) Before entering upon the duties of his office every pay Bonds. officer shall give bond for the faithful performance thereof, with sufficient surety, to be approved by the Secretary of the Navy.

(2) He shall give a new bond, with sufficient surety, every four years, or whenever required to do so by the Secretary of the Navy; and all such bonds shall be examined every two years for the purpose of ascertaining the sufficiency of the surety thereon.

(3) A pay officer's bond takes effect from the date of its approval by the Secretary of the Navy.

(4) The issuing of a new appointment and commission to any pay officer shall not affect or annul any existing bond, but the same shall remain in force and apply to such new appointment and commission.

(5) The bond of a pay officer acting as an assistant to another pay officer covers the public property actually in his custody, and for which he has receipted, but does not release the senior from a proper supervision over the acts of his subordinate.

partment.

747. Pay officers shall immediately forward to the Auditor for Copies of orders the Navy Department copies of orders received, attaching them to, sent to Auditor or detaching them from, any ship or station. They shall indorse for the Navy Deon these copies, over their signature, the date upon which they actually begin duty, or are relieved from it, and shall keep the Auditor advised of their addresses

Excess or defi

748. A pay officer who at any time discovers an excess or deficiency of the public money in his custody shall immediately report ciency of public the fact to his commanding officer.

money to be reported.

Pay officers as

749. A pay officer acting as an assistant to another shall not be held to any pecuniary responsibility, except for property placed in assistants. his custody and for which he shall have receipted.

Clerical assist

750. (1) The general inspector of the pay corps, a paymaster of the fleet, a pay officer of a ship with a complement of more than ance. one hundred and seventy-five persons, a pay officer of a supply steamer, store vessel, receiving ship, shore station, or the Naval Academy, or a pay officer detailed as inspector of provisions and clothing, shall be allowed a clerk.

(2) The pay officer of a ship shall be allowed a yeoman.

(3) A pay officer shall be allowed the assistance of one person when settling his accounts after detachment; it shall be a clerk, if he has recently had one, otherwise a yeoman. Additional assistance

out.

of any kind requires the special authority of the Secretary of the Navy.

Duty on board 751. The pay officer of a ship fitting out shall, upon joining her, ship when fitting carefully examine the storerooms and other spaces allotted for the stowage of provisions and supplies in his charge; and shall report in writing to the captain their capacity and any defects or deficiencies in their arrangement.

The pay division.

Care of store

752. (1) The pay division shall consist of the senior pay officer and such of his assistants as are not stationed elsewhere at quarters. (2) It will muster at quarters at a place designated by the captain. (3) The senior pay officer shall take charge of the division and make the usual report in regard to absentees.

(4) In battle, the members of the division shall be stationed by the captain where they will be of the greatest service.

(5) For the issue of money, small stores, and clothing, the enlisted men of this division shall form part of the powder division.

753. (1) The senior pay officer shall take charge of the store and rooms and stores. Other rooms which are kept locked, keeping the keys in his custody. He shall see that store and other rooms assigned to the pay department are clean, dry, well ventilated, and in good order, and that they are prepared for inspection at the same time as the other parts of the ship.

Loss of, or dam

(2) He shall see that no private articles are stowed in these rooms; and that they are not used as sleeping apartments without the captain's knowledge and authority.

(3) He shall see that stores in his charge are properly cared for, as hereinafter provided.

754. The pay officer shall, in the event of discovering deterioraage to, public tion, loss, or destruction of any of the public property in his charge, immediately report the fact to his commanding officer.

property.

Transmitting official papers.

Suggestions.

In case of fire or shipwreck.

755. (1) Pay officers shall forward all official reports, communications, and returns, whatever their character, through the captain, except those for the Treasury Department.

(2) Applications to the Comptroller of the Treasury, under the Act approved July 31, 1894, for his decision upon any question involving a payment, will, however, be forwarded through the usual official channels to the Navy Department for transmission to that officer.

756. Whenever he deems it necessary, it shall be the duty of the pay officer to make written suggestions or reports to the captain concerning supplies and stores for the ship.

757. (1) In case of fire or shipwreck, it shall be the special duty of the pay officer to secure and preserve the accounts of officers and men, the public money, and such other public papers and property, in the order of their value, as circumstances permit.

(2) In every case of the loss or capture of a vessel belonging to the Navy of the United States, the proper accounting officers of the Treasury, under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy, are authorized, in the settlement of the accounts of the pay officer of such vessel, to credit him with such portion of the amount of the provisions, clothing, small stores, and money with which he stands charged on the books of the Auditor for the Navy Department as they shall be satisfied was inevitably lost by such capture or loss of a public vessel; and such pay officer shall be fully exonerated by such credit from all liability on account of the provisions, clothing,

small stores, and money so proved to have been captured or lost. (See sec. 284, R. S.)

758. The pay officer of a ship shall transmit to the Navy Depart- To transmit a ment, on the first day of each quarter, a list of officers then attached list of officers. to the ship, stating opposite the name of each the date of his orders to the station or ship, and the date of his reporting on board; this list shall also show the changes that have taken place since the last report, with the dates of orders and of detachments.

759. A clerk or yeoman shall not sign an official paper for the pay officer; all such papers shall be signed by the pay officer himself.

Clerks and yeomen shall not sign.

Death or inca

officer afloat.

760. (1) In the event of the death of a pay officer on duty, or of his being pronounced by competent medical authority to be deranged pacity of a pay or disabled in mind or body to such an extent as seriously to incapacitate him for the performance of his duties, or in event of its being necessary to relieve a pay officer from duty for any cause whatever, the commanding officer of the ship or station to which he has been or is attached shall immediately take possession of the safe and of the keys of the storerooms of such pay officer, and report all the facts in the case to the senior officer present. The latter shall, without delay, direct a board of officers to take an inventory of the papers, money, and stores then on hand; and shall appoint a suitable person to take charge of the same, and to perform the duties of such pay officer until otherwise directed by competent authority.

(2) The senior officer present shall also appoint another suitable person to complete the vouchers, transfer the accounts, close up the books, and to have the custody of the same and of all papers necessary to the complete settlement of the account of such pay officer, and to be responsible for their proper transmission to the Department

(3) Both the above-named appointees shall be present when the above inventories are taken, and shall be furnished with copies thereof; which copies, duly certified, shall be considered satisfactory vouchers for the money and stores thus ascertained to be on hand.

(4) If a pay officer unable to settle his accounts shall, while of sound mine, have nominated in writing the person to be selected to have custody of the books, vouchers, and other papers, and to complete accounts as above mentioned, the senior officer present shall, unless manifestly contrary to the public interest, conform to such nomination, and shall inform the Department without delay of his entire action in the matter; but nothing in this paragraph shall apply to a pay officer relieved from duty for misconduct.

Acting pay of

761. When the office of paymaster or assistant paymaster becomes vacant, by death or otherwise, in ships at sea, or on foreign ficers. stations, or on the Pacific coast of the United States, the senior officer present may make an acting appointment of any fit person, who shall perform the duties thereof until another paymaster or assistant paymaster shall report for duty. (Sec. 1381, R. S.)

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