CHAPTER XXIX. ACCOUNTS AND RETURNS. Accounts un 1339. A system of accounts, covering all the financial affairs der direction of of the naval establishment, shall be maintained under the direc- Paymaster Gention of the Paymaster General of the Navy. eral. 1340. All claims and demands whatever by the United States All claims to or against them, and all accounts whatever, in which the United Treasury DepartStates are concerned, either as debtors or as creditors, shall be ment. settled and adjusted in the Department of the Treasury. (Sec. 236, R. S.) Comptroller of 1341. (1) The Comptroller of the Treasury shall, under the Duties of direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, prescribe the forms of the Treasury. keeping and rendering all public accounts, except those relating to the postal revenues and expenditures therefrom. (Act of July 31, 1894.) (2) The 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 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., amended by act of July 31, 1894.) Duties of the 1342. The Auditor for the Navy Department shall receive and examine all accounts of salaries and incidental expenses of the Auditor for the Navy Departoffice of the Secretary of the Navy, and of all bureaus and officers ment. under his direction, all accounts relating to the naval establishment, Marine Corps, Naval Academy, and all other business within the jurisdiction of the Department of the Navy, and certify the balances arising thereon to the Division of Bookkeeping and Warrants, and send forthwith a copy of each certificate to the Secretary of the Navy. (Act of July 31, 1894.) 1343. (1) Any difference of pay or allowances pertaining to Credits for differences of pay, the current or previous quarter to which an officer or enlisted man etc., Auditor to is entitled may be credited by a pay officer on his current rolls. be notified. The pay officer shall note over the credit why it is made and the period of time that it embraces, and shall file as vouchers with his roll the orders, letters, or other papers which establish the correctness of the credit, and shall notify the Auditor for the Navy Department immediately by letter when such credit has been made. (2) All claims pertaining to a period of time prior to the current or previous quarter and those which for any reason a pay officer may decline to pay, shall be submitted to the Auditor for the Navy Department. In such cases the claimant shall forward with the claim, in addition to the papers required by paragraph 1, a certificate of the pay officer that he has not paid and will not pay the amount claimed. Claims to be submitted to Auditor. Procedure of pay officer in case of suspen (3) When a pay officer receives a notification from the Auditor for the Navy Department of a suspension not susceptible of exsion or disallow- planation, or of a disallowance of an illegal payment in a personal ance by Auditor. account, or discovers an overpayment due to error, he may check the amount improperly paid against the account of the person concerned, if such person is still carried on his rolls; if transferred, he may, through the regular official channel, request the pay officer on whose roll the account is borne to make the necessary checkage, forwarding with the request an extract from his roll or the Auditor's statement, in duplicate, showing in detail the reason why the checkage is required; all such requests or statements shall be certified by the pay officers making them to be correct. The pay officer receiving the request shall then check the amount in accordance therewith, filing same as a pay roll voucher, noting over the checkage the name of the officer making the request, and shall immediately notify the Auditor of the action taken, forwarding at the same time the duplicate extract from the roll or the Auditor's statement. If it shall be impracticable to pursue the above course, the extract from the roll or Auditor's statement may be forwarded to the Paymaster General of the Navy, together with the latest information as to the whereabouts of the account in question. At the same time, the pay officer making the request shall forward a duplicate copy direct to the pay officer who is to make the checkage, if it is known on what roll the account is carried. The Paymaster General upon receiving such a request shall, if he is satisfied of the correctness of same, issue to the proper pay officer an order to make the required checkage, and he shall also notify the pay officer making the request that he has done so. General cash book. Accounts kept separate under every bond. 1344. Every pay officer having a disbursing account shall keep a general cash book on a prescribed form, in which shall be entered all receipts and expenditures of money in such manner as to permit the account to be balanced readily. 1345. Disbursing officers are required to keep their accounts with the United States separate and distinct under every bond given by them, and to state in the caption of each quarterly account the date of the bond under which it is rendered. General pro1346. Where provisions of a general nature are included in visions in appro- appropriation acts, they are construed as binding from the date of priation acts. the approval of such acts. Receipts for funds transferred. Responsibility for payment. Telephone service and newspaper subscriptions. Requirements as to advertising. 1347. In all cases of transfers of funds, the receiving officer must state in the receipt given that he holds himself accountable to the United States for the sum received. 1348. A pay officer can not be held responsible for payments to any person who has been removed from the Navy, unless the pay officer has received official notification of the fact. 1349. (1) No subscriptions for newspapers or contracts for telephone service shall be made without the express authority of the Department. (2) Bills for such expenditures shall not be sent to the Secretary of the Navy for approval, unless the expenditures are in excess of the amount which the Secretary has authorized to be expended. 1350. (1) Pay officers or others who, in carrying out orders from the Department or any bureau thereof, are under the necessity of advertising, shall forward to the Department a copy of the proposed advertisement, and the Department will take such further steps as may be required for the publication of the same. (2) Bills for advertising are allowed by the accounting officers only when accompanied by a copy of the written authority of the Secretary of the Navy and a certified copy of the advertisement. (Sec. 3828, R. S.) (3) All advertisements, notices, proposals for contracts, and all forms of advertising required by law for the several Departments of the Government, may be paid for at a price not to exceed the commercial rates charged to private individuals, with the usual discounts, such rates to be ascertained from sworn statements to be furnished by the proprietors or publishers of the newspapers proposing so to advertise. (Act of June 20, 1878.) Salaried and 1351. Salaries shall not be paid to any employees in any of the navy yards except those who are designated in the estimates. per diem employees at navy All other persons shall receive a per diem compensation for the yards. time during which they may be actually employed. (Sec. 1545, R. S.) 1352. Pay officers at stations having on their rolls the names Persons servof officers or men who are doing duty on tugs or ships in the ing on tugs, etc. harbor, and entitled to sea pay, shall be careful to note the fact on the roll, with the name of the ship to which such persons are attached. 1353. Money paid for rewards or expenses of deserters or Rewards pald stragglers, and checked against their personal accounts, is re- for deserters, etc. garded as an authorized overpayment, and must in all cases be shown on public bills approved by the commanding officer. When such checkages are to be made on the "Deserters' roll," the Bureau of Navigation, or the Commandant of the Marine Corps, shall approve the public bills, if practicable. (Art. 1366, par. 5.) officer for check 1354. Before a pay officer can receive credit at the office of the Vouchers reAuditor for the Navy Department for any amount of money quired from pay checked on his books as having been advanced by a purchasing, age. pay officer, he must produce the order under which the advance was made, or a copy thereof, with all endorsements, certified to be such by the officer receiving the advance. The pay officer shall always inspect the original order and satisfy himself that all endorsements are embraced in the certified copy. Vouchers for of pay. 1355. (1) The checkage of a loss of pay against a person's account, in accordance with regulation or the sentence of a court-checkage of loss martial, shall be made upon the written order of his commanding officer to the pay officer, which order shall be filed with the accounts. (2) Upon the approval by the commanding officer of a sentence involving loss of pay, the pay officer shall be notified immediately in writing in order that the amount of pay to be forfeited may be noted on the account of the person concerned. In case the reviewing authority remits the loss, the entry on the pay roll shall be removed. (3) Should any person upon whose account such note appears be transferred before his sentence has been approved by the Secretary of the Navy, the pay officer making the transfer shall note the facts on the transfer accounts. (4) Should the discharge of any person upon whose account such a note appears be ordered, the pay officer shall make the checkage before discharge. Vouchers for subsistence of passengers. Vouchers for sale of fuel to officers. Vouchers for 1356. Vouchers for payments to messes for subsistence of authorized passengers must give a list of the persons subsisted, the length of time subsisted, and by what mess. 1357. Vouchers for the issue or sale of fuel to officers shall be prepared in the usual manner under appropriation "Pay of the Navy," but shall not be taken up by the general storekeeper in his property account. 1358. The first voucher for commutation of quarters at any commutation of station must be accompanied by a copy of the order assigning the quarters. officer to duty thereat. In subsequent payments the paymaster shall refer by number, etc., to the order, a copy of which is filed, and the final voucher must be accompanied with a copy of the authority for and must show the date of relief from such duty.. This last requirement shall be met by the pay officer's filing a certified copy of the officer's detachment, with endorsements showing when the detachment took effect. Vouchers for payments to officers for service performed. Gunnery prizes. Accounts of deserters and deceased persons. Purchases for er vessels. 1359. Before a pay officer can receive credit for a payment made to an officer for any service, he must produce the order under which the service has been performed, or a copy thereof with all endorsements, certified by the officer to be such, together with a certificate by the officer of the time at which he left his domicile or station to enter upon such duties. The pay officer shall always inspect the original order and satisfy himself that all endorsements are embraced in the certified copy. 1360. Gunnery prizes shall be credited to the accounts of the men to whom due. Payments of the amounts involved shall be made through exchange of receipts and money, as covered by special money requisition therefor, on the quarter-deck at muster. 1361. (1) The wages due a deserter are forfeited to the United States; the proceeds of the sale of his effects left on board and of the effects of deceased persons, when sold, shall be treated as provided in article 1290. (2) Pay officers shall make an immediate return to the office of the Auditor for the Navy Department of the accounts of deceased persons and transmit their wills if they have left any. The balances which may have been due at the time of their death will be paid only after a statement of the accounts at the Auditor's office. In forwarding the accounts of deceased persons, pay officers shall state the total monthly or yearly pay of such persons at the time of their death (including, in the case of enlisted men, both the permanent and temporary additions to their pay proper) and the amount, if any, paid on account of funeral expenses, and referring to public bills covering such expenditures. 1362. (1) Purchases for, or issues of clothing or money to torpedo and oth- torpedo vessels and vessels not having a pay officer on board (other than yard craft or those regularly attached to a yard or station), when such vessels are not at the station to which the pay officer having their accounts is assigned, shall be made on order of the senior officer present by any pay officer, who shall account for all such expenditures as may be directed. Any transfer of funds between pay officers, necessarily involved in making payments to officers and men of vessels herein specified, is authorized. (2) The commanding officers of such vessels shall be furnished with a memorandum record of the accounts of the crew for presentation to any pay officer designated, on which issues of money or clothing may be based. All entries shall be made by pay officers, except that the commanding officer shall be responsible Transfer ac (2) The transfer of an officer's account from one pay officer to Transfer of ofanother shall be made directly. If there is an allotment, the ficers' accounts. pay officer shall note on the transfers the monthly sum allotted, with the place of payment and the date of expiration. Transfer of (3) The accounts of enlisted men of the Navy and Marine Corps transferred shall be made out in conformity with the regulations men's accounts. of the Treasury Department, and must accompany the men. They shall be sent by the pay officer making the transfer to the pay officer of the ship, yard, or station to which the transfer is made, or; in the case of marines transferred to a marine barracks, to the Paymaster of the Marine Corps, through the commanding officer of marines at such barracks. The pay officer, or the paymaster of the Marine Corps, to whom they are sent, shall receipt one copy and return it to the pay officer who made the transfer, as a voucher for the settlement of his accounts. Entry for pay (4) On transfer accounts of enlisted men received, pay officers shall certify the date on which the men whose names are borne and for rations. thereon actually reported in person, and from which they are entitled to rations or commutation therefor. When a man does not report in person on the same day that he is entered for pay, the date of his reporting shall be noted under his name on the pay roll. (5) Whenever the accounts of an enlisted person, who has been sent from a cruising ship to a foreign hospital or private institu- admission to or tion in the United States, are transferred to a receiving ship, they hospital. shall be accompanied by a certificate signed by the medical officer of the ship, giving the date of admission to the hospital or institution and the date of discharge, if known. Certificate of discharge from (6) Whenever an enlisted man is sent to a naval hospital and Notice sent to his accounts are transferred to a receiving ship, his commanding accounts have hospital where officer shall immediately inform the medical officer in charge of the been transhospital where the accounts of the patient have been transferred. ferred. (7) The transfer of accounts must in all cases be made through the commanding officers. (8) The pay officer shall, upon receiving written orders from Correction of the captain, make any necessary changes in his books to correct books due to ererroneous entries in the names or description of enlisted men in rors in transfer transfer rolls. Such order shall be filed as a voucher with the accounts. rolls. 1364. Before the name of a newly enlisted person can be en- Original entry tered on the books for pay, the pay officer must receive a written on enlistment. order from the commanding officer, giving the name, date, term of enlistment, rating under which enlisted, and rate of pay. Pay clerks to legiance. 1365. A pay clerk shall not be entered upon the muster roll of any ship, nor be entitled to any pay, until he has accepted his take oath of alappointment by letter, binding himself therein to be subject to the laws and regulations for the government of the Navy and the discipline of the ship, and taken the oath of allegiance. |