COLLECTIONS The General Accounting Office is by law charged with the settlement of claims and demands not only against the Government but those in its favor, and is required to superintend the recovery of all indebtedness certified by it as due the United States. See statement as to such indebtedness and the collection thereof in the annual report of the Comptroller General for 1932, pages 52 to 54. During the fiscal year there was collected through the efforts of the General Accounting Office $5,187,819.79. For the items comprising such collections and the units of the General Accounting Office through which the collections were effected see pages 109 to 110 of this report. The General Accounting Office had remaining at the close of the fiscal year 1937 on its books for collection 175,147 claims of the United States, aggregating $526,690,575.20 of reported indebtedness to the United States-a gain over 1936 of 33,104 claims and of $25,229,671.64 of such indebtedness. INDIAN TRIBAL CLAIMS The work of compiling and preparing reports on Indian tribal claims for use in suits pending in the Court of Claims was begun in the General Accounting Office in January 1925. This work so far as the actual compilation of reports on Indian cases before the Court of Claims is concerned was completed October 12, 1936. However, requests for information relating to Indian matters are frequently made upon this Office by Members of the Congress, Committees of Congress, etc. Also, as additional jurisdictional statutes are enacted by the Congress, requests for reports on claims presented by the Indians authorized to bring suit in the Court of Claims will no doubt be received here. Such requests require a detailed search among the records in order that proper replies may be made. There have been enacted 35 separate Indian jurisdictional acts, under which 112 petitions have been filed in the Court of Claims and forwarded to the General Accounting Office for report thereon. Pursuant thereto there have been compiled and forwarded to the Department of Justice 138 reports, including 25 reports on nonreservation Indian schools, showing information in connection with the contentions and requests for accounting contained in said petitions. Twelve of the petitions referred here for report were dismissed by the Court of Claims before the data could be assembled and report made thereon. Some of these reports were in letter form in which detailed information could not be furnished, many required considerable work in the preparation thereof and the majority were in an improvised form of binding, consisting of several hundred pages to each volume, and several volumes to a report. In the beginning of this Indian tribal claims work it was necessary first to assemble in one place convenient for easy access, the vast volume of scattered files of Indian accounts and claim settlements, covering a period in many instances of more than 100 years; their classification and segregation for examination purposes; and also their repair which was frequently necessary because of disintegration. This work also required a vast amount of research of the history of the tribes; their origin, migration, and unions with other tribes and their many treaties and agreements with the United States Government and between tribes. Much information valuable and necessary to the proper disposition of the cases was obtained from reports of the Bureau of Ethnology, House and Senate reports, and records of the War, Treasury, and Interior Departments. The accounts and claim settlements covering payments to the Indians are not filed by tribes but in numerical sequence. To obtain for examination the particular accounts and claim settlements pertaining to specific tribes of Indians it was necessary to know the origin of said tribes, their migrations, their unions, the treaties and agreements made with them, and appropriations made in fulfillment of said treaties and agreements and for other purposes. This knowledge could be obtained only after a complete and exhaustive study and analysis of the statutes at large, the records and ledgers of the War, Treasury, and Interior Departments, the State Department treaty records, and other reference data. There were approximately 1,451,200 claim settlements and 86,900 accounts examined, analyzed, and classified in connection with the compilation of the reports heretofore referred to. The accounts, thus examined, analyzed and classified, covered vouchered expenditures of varying types and kinds, and in varying amounts, the larger accounts containing as many as 6,000 vouchers. The expenditures represented by these accounts were made from advances to disbursing officers on accountable warrants, while expenditures through claim settlements were those made direct by the accounting officers. The largest and most involved report was the one made in connection with Sioux Petition No. C-531. This report comprising 4,385 pages of text, tabulation and data, bound in eight volumes, involved, among other things, the examination and analysis of 162,899 claim settlements and 7,279 accounts, containing approximately 600,000 pages and the classification of disbursements pertaining to Sioux Indians. It involved also an exhaustive search and study of available records. for determination of appropriations, funds, accounts, etc,. having relation to the Sioux Indians. Approximately 51 funds and 1,900 appropriations covering the years from 1831 to 1925 were examined and analyzed in connection with the preparation of the report, the work on which report was started on March 1, 1925, and completed on April 12, 1932. Other reports of considerable magnitude were those compiled in connection with the following cases: The Indian tribal claims section for a time, particularly in the early stages of the work, was confronted with many real and vexing problems. Generally speaking the various treaties with the Indians pro vided for annuity and per capita payments in money, the furnishing of agricultural implements and assistance, educational facilities and equipment, subsistence, clothing, etc. In many cases there were claims that these treaty provisions were not fulfilled and in order to ascertain and show to what extent and in what manner such provisions were fulfilled, it was necessary to examine and list disbursements made under the appropriations to meet the requirements of the various treaties, agreements, and acts of Congress pertaining to a particular tribe or band of Indians. Many of the Indian jurisdictional acts contained provisions for pleading as offsets, expenditures made under gratuity appropriations. What would be an expenditure properly for offsetting, whether it be a gratuity or an expenditure made for the benefit of a particular tribe, was a matter for judicial determination. Consequently, there was left open only one course, and that was to report all expenditures appearing as in the nature of gratuities or benefits, segregated in such way as to enable the court to eliminate such as were not considered proper items for offset. The offsetting items thus reported by the General Accounting Office with few exceptions have been allowed by the court. Under section 2 of title I of the act of August 12, 1935 (49 Stat. 596), the matter of gratuities to some extent has been clarified. A statement of the reports prepared and transmitted by the General Accounting Office to the Department of Justice, including a citation to the statute under which each suit was brought, the name of the plaintiff Indians, the court reference, the date suit was filed in the Court of Claims, the amount claimed, the date the General Accounting Office report was forwarded to the Department of Justice, etc., is set out on pages 133 to 137. INSPECTIONS AND SURVEYS During the fiscal year 1937 representatives of the General Accounting Office visited 849 fiscal and administrative field offices and inspected 855 disbursing and collecting accounts. The number of offices visited and the number of accounts inspected represent an increase over the fiscal year 1936 of 407 offices visited and 247 accounts inspected. Such increase is largely due to the increased number of field offices under emergency agencies such as the Works Progress Administration, Resettlement Administration, Soil Conservation Service, etc. As a result of the field contacts there have been rendered to this office 1,193 inspection, survey, and miscellaneous reports, representing an increase over the fiscal year 1936 of 426 reports. The large number of field offices under emergency agencies and the lack of experienced personnel for the operation thereof have resulted in a large increase in the matters ordinarily brought to the attention of the departments and establishments concerned for corrective measures. During the fiscal year 207 letters have been written to departments and establishments calling attention to the irregularities disclosed. The results thus obtained through such contacts and reports have been very gratifying and have been of inestimable value to the field personnel of the Government in the matter of the proper method of handling public funds. It will be noted from the statistical tabulation contained herein, pages 112 to 117, that the 849 offices inspected and surveyed during the fiscal year were located in 28 States, the District of Columbia, Panama, Territory of Hawaii, China, England, France, Japan, Korea, and 13 United States vessels. It has been the constant endeavor of the Office to formulate the travel itinerary of field parties so as to contact the largest number of offices possible under a given travel order, thereby resulting in a large increase in offices visited without any appreciable increase in travel costs. In addition to the regular inspections completed, for which reports have been rendered, it appears desirable to call attention to the following inspections and audits of a special nature which were in process but uncompleted at the close of the fiscal year: 1. Audit of the books and records of the Tennessee Valley Authority, Knoxville, Tenn., for the fiscal years 1936 and 1937, as required by section 9 of the act of May 18, 1933, as amended by section 14 of the act of August 31, 1935. 2. Audit and inspection of the accounts and records of Emergency Crop and Feed Loan Offices, Farm Credit Administration, at Baltimore, Md.; Springfield, Mass.; Columbia, S. C.; Memphis, Tenn.; St. Louis, Mo.; St. Paul, Minn.; Spokane, Wash.; Salt Lake City, Utah; Omaha, Nebr.; Wichita, Kans.; and Dallas, Tex. 3. Inspection of the accounts and records of the Treasurer of the United States and survey of fiscal and accounting procedure in the Treasurer's office and the Division of Public Debt, Treasury Depart ment. 4. Inspection of the accounts and records of the Chief, Division of Disbursement, Treasury Department, and survey of the disbursing and administrative accounting procedure in the Division of Disburse ment. ACCOUNTING SYSTEMS Section 309 of the Budget and Accounting Act, 1921 (42 Stat. 25), provides that The Comptroller General shall prescribe the forms, systems, and procedure for administrative appropriation and fund accounting in the several departments and establishments, and for the administrative examination of fiscal officers' accounts and claims against the United States. In Circular No. 27 issued July 21, 1926, the General Accounting Office called the attention of the departments and establishments to such provision and advised them that a uniform system of accounts had been provided for use in connection therewith. In the annual report of the Comptroller General for the fiscal year 1927 (pp. 26-27) there is given a brief description of such uniform system as promulgated on April 1, 1927. During the past two fiscal years there has again been given special study to the matter of revising the uniform system as prescribed in Circular No. 27, with a view to its general improvement based upon the experience gained during the 10-year period and especially to the inclusion therein of procedures made necessary by the recently expanded Federal activities. Such revised and expanded procedure, while not actually promulgated for general use, is now being prescribed for departments and establishments as fast as the limited personnel and facilities of the Office will permit. The systems of administrative accounts developed and promulgated during the fiscal year include the following exhibits as to procedure: Chart of general ledger accounts-Exhibit A. Pro forma entries to general ledger accounts-Exhibit B. Accountability records for Government transportation requests and bills of lading-Exhibit D. The following list of accounting forms, exclusive of accounting documents and financial statements, are prescribed for use in connection with each such system promulgated: General ledger (Standard Form 1014). Voucher distribution card (Standard Form 1023). Carrier's claim record. Transportation request accountability record. Bill of lading accountability record. Statement of balances-General ledger accounts. Schedule of balances showing status of appropriations. The last three (financial statements), together with transcripts of general ledger accounts for Treasury Cash (unexpended and unrequisitioned balances in the Treasury by appropriations), are required to be submitted to the General Accounting Office at the close of each month. Such submission serves the purposes of (a) advising this Office that the systems are being operated as prescribed; (b) bringing to light any possible revisions that may from time to time become necessary in the systems as prescribed; and (c) furnishing a basis for the reconciliation of the available balances on the books of the department or establishment and of the General Accounting Office, statements of which are returned to the particular office concerned. There follows a list of the general-ledger accounts now in use from which list the accounts necessary to be maintained by a particular department or establishment are selected and prescribed: UNIFORM ACCOUNTING SYSTEM-GENERAL-LEDGER ACCOUNTS 01. Treasury cash (by symbols and titles). 02. 03.31 Available cash (by symbols and titles). Disbursing officer's cash--Disbursing funds (by symbols and titles). 03.32 Disbursing officer's cash-Receipts and repayments (by symbols and titles). 03.37 04. 05. 06. 07. 08.1 08.11 08.6 08.61 09.1 09.11 09.6 09.61 10.1 10.6 11.1 Disbursing officer's cash-Special deposits. Securities Special deposits. General fund receipts deposited (by symbols and titles). Special and trust fund receipts deposited (by symbols and titles). Investments. Accrued interest receivable on investments. Investments--Trust funds (by trusts). Accrued interest receivable on investments-Trust funds (by trusts). Accrued interest receivable on loans. Loans receivable-Trust funds (by trusts). Accrued interest receivable on loans---Trust funds (by trusts). Accounts receivable-Trust funds. Unmatured collection contracts. 11.11 Estimated returns-Unmatured collection contracts. 11.6 Unmatured collection contracts-Trust funds. 11.61 Estimated returns unmatured collection contracts-Trust funds. |