When no amount is found due a claimant, a disallowance settlement certificate is prepared advising the claimant of the disallowance of his claim and the reasons therefor, and advice of the disallowance is furnished to the administrative office concerned. If a claimant is dissatisfied with the settlement of his claim, he can obtain a review under my supervision by making application, formal or informal, therefor.

Claims work further encompasses a share in the preparation of reports more fully described above under "Decisions and Other Legal Work," to assist the Department of Justice and United States Attorneys in defending suits against the United States in the Court of Claims and the various Federal District Courts, in many of which suits reliance must be had upon records of the General Accounting Office. Also, as indicated in the preceding paragraph, any claimant not satisfied with the settlement of his claim, or whose claim has been disallowed, may obtain a review under my personal supervision, often entailing additional claims work. During the fiscal year 1943, there were handled 2,539 matters of these and related types, including reports of the transcripts and proceedings of the General Accounting Office with respect to debts finally determined by the Office to be due the United States.

Debt collections.-In connection with the settlement of claims of the United States, the General Accounting Office maintains a system of debt records, in which are recorded debts reported by the administrative agencies of the Government as overdue or uncollectible, together with amounts found due the United States in the audit and settlement of accounts and claims. When claims against the United States are presented for settlement, the amount of any such indebtedness to the United States is offset against the amount found due the claimant, or withheld pursuant to the provisions of the Act of March 3, 1875, as amended, 31 U. S. C. 227. During the fiscal year 1943 collections of $706,019.16 were made in the course of the general claims work. This amount is in addition to the amount of $5,539,089.64 reported on page 46 as collected in the settlement of transportation claims and accounts. The collections of $706,019.16 include $79,763.78 in cash or equivalent remitted by debtors; $42,003.13 checked in accounts of disbursing officers; $21,736.57 recovered on account of payments on duplicate or forged checks; $347,987.53 set off against amounts claimed from the United States and otherwise due claimants, and $214,528.15 collected through the Department of Justice.

With reference to the last-named amount, it should be explained that when collection cannot be made otherwise, the indebtedness is reported to the Attorney General for collection by such means,

including suit, as may be available to the Department of Justice. During the fiscal year 1943, 674 cases were reported to the Department of Justice for collection of indebtedness to the United States, aggregating $1,823,430.98.

Statistics as to general claims work performed during the fiscal year 1943 will be found on pages 100 to 103, Appendix D.

Gasoline tax collections.-There was continued during the fiscal year 1943 the practice of effecting collections of amounts paid as State tax on gasoline purchased for the use of the United States. With the exception of the States of Alabama, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Wisconsin, refunds are being received. Efforts to secure refunds in the cited States have been abandoned in view of the continued objections of the taxing authorities in said States and the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Alabama v. King & Boozer, 314 U. S. 1, decided November 10, 1941, to the effect that a vendor of supplies to the Federal Government is not exempt from a State tax where, under the State law, the legal incidence of the tax is not on the vendee.

Indian tribal claims.-The work of preparing and compiling 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. These tribal claims result from so-called jurisdictional acts passed by the Congress authorizing particular tribes and bands of Indians to file suits against the Government in the Court of Claims for amounts alleged to be due them for non fulfillment of treaty obligations, the taking of their lands without full or just compensation, and for an accounting of their trust funds, etc. These acts generally provide that all amounts gratuitously advanced to, or expended for or on behalf of these authorized Indian suitors be set off against amounts otherwise due them.

Following the passage of such an act, the Indians file their petition in the Court of Claims praying for judgment on the grounds alleged therein and usually asking for an accounting of all their trust funds. A copy of the petition is forwarded to the General Accounting Office by the Department of Justice with request for a full report with respect to the subject matter of the suit. The request generally comprehends the accounting asked for in the petition. These accountings are long and tedious operations, frequently involving millions of dollars and requiring the examination of thousands of fiscal officers' accounts and claim settlements covering, in many instances, a period of well over 100 years.

The compilation of these reports involves a detailed study and analysis of the jurisdictional acts and the petitions filed pursuant thereto, all treaties and agreements made with the tribe or band of Indians involved, and all acts of Congress, appropriation and otherwise, relating to such Indians. It also involves a complete analysis of all expenditures made by the United States on the Indians' behalf, the segregation thereof into treaty and nontreaty, or gratuity, items and the preparation and compilation of a comprehensive report reflecting the data requested by the Department of Justice. In order definitely to identify the recipients or beneficiaries of particular moneys, it is necessary to make an extensive research in connection with the history of the tribe or band of Indians involved, their origin, migrations, and unions with other tribes. Much information, valuable and necessary to a proper disposition of the case, is obtained from the Reports of the Bureau of Ethnology, House and Senate reports and documents, and records of the War, Treasury, and Interior Depart

ments.

Since 1925, when the General Accounting Office commenced the compilation and furnishing of these reports, the Court of Claims has used as set-offs against amounts otherwise found due the Indians approximately $14,000,000 reported by the General Accounting Office to have been expended as gratuities for them or on their behalf. The judgments of the Court in these cases have been based consistently on the data and figures so compiled and reported.

For a detailed statement of the reports heretofore prepared and transmitted to the Department of Justice, including a citation to the statute under which suit was brought, the name of the plaintiff Indians, the Court of Claims reference, the date suit was filed in said Court, the amount claimed, the date the report was forwarded to the Department of Justice, and the recommendations made on Indian tribal claims legislation, see the annual reports of the Comptroller General for the fiscal years 1932, pages 1 to 7 and 124 to 128; 1937, pages 83 to 85 and 133 to 137; 1939, pages 46 to 50; 1940, pages 30 to 32; 1941, pages 46 to 48; and 1942, pages 72 to 75 and 158 to 160. During the fiscal year 1943, there were forwarded to the Department of Justice two of such reports on Indian tribal claims, one of which prayed for a judgment of $1,958,128.05 and the other for the value of a large tract of land, the value of which was not stated. See page 103, Appendix D.

Constant changes in laws affecting military and naval personnel and the tremendous increase in the civilian personnel of the Government have required the institution of training programs so that employees with little experience may be used in disposing of the types of

claims filed by these classes of personnel. In connection with the foregoing, there was instituted a brief course of instruction, supplementing the information made available to all new employees of the office, by way of stressing those elements needed for the performance of claims work, as well as the principal steps customarily taken in making Federal appropriations, expenditures and collections, and such course has been given to all employees engaged in that work. As a result, these employees have achieved a better grasp of their duties and responsibilities.

TRANSPORTATION AUDIT AND CLAIMS

With reference to amounts expended for freight and passenger transportation for the United States Government, the audit of vouchers covering payments thereof, and the disposition of claims involving these items, attention is invited to pages 75 to 78 in my annual report for the fiscal year 1942, wherein the problems confronting the General Accounting Office as affected by the Transportation Act of 1940, 54 Stat. 898, and the Acts of December 29, 1941, and June 1, 1942, 55 Stat. 875 and 56 Stat. 306, respectively, are discussed. As stated in that report, the combined effect of this legislation was to relieve both the disbursing officers and the certifying officers of all departments and establishments of the Government of liability for transportation overpayments, except with reference to mathematical accuracy of bills presented by carriers or illegal payments. As a result, administrative offices and establishments and certifying and disbursing officers, so the General Accounting Office is informed, have abandoned any examination of transportation vouchers with a view to verifying transportation rates, freight classifications and land-grant deductions, thus leaving the whole responsibility for discovery and recovery of transportation overpayments upon the General Accounting Office.

Transportation vouchers, both freight and passenger, in the accounts of disbursing officers constitute a tremendous increase over those formerly presented and the items covered by such vouchers have increased to a point where there are now attached to each voucher more than 10 times the number of transportation requests or bills of lading heretofore presented by carriers for payment on individual vouchers.

It is estimated that for the fiscal year 1943 there was expended by all branches of the Government approximately $1,200,000,000 for freight transportation and approximately $750,000,000 for passenger transportation, or an estimated total of $1,950,000,000 as against an estimated total of $350,000,000 expended for freight and passenger transportation by all Government services during the fiscal year 1942.

The amount to be expended for the fiscal year 1944 is expected to approximate $2,500,000,000. About 70 percent of all expenditures for freight and passenger transportation cover transportation of military supplies and personnel of the armed forces, and the difficulties presented in connection with the audit of these bills are increased due to the presence of factors not heretofore required to be considered in connection with the audit and disposition of transportation matters. For instance, with reference to freight transportation, new production points require establishment of new commodity rates; there have been developed new traffic lanes; shipments now cover previously unclassified commodities; special privileges and new transit agreements by carriers require special divisions; domestic and export traffic to and from Canada (and it is anticipated that this type of difficulty will be experienced with reference to shipments to and from Mexico) has raised many new questions; and the various orders of the Office of Defense Transportation have materially altered rules heretofore in effect relative to maximum load, multiple load, restriction of movements, and rules as to mixtures of commodities for space conservation, etc. Moreover, the use by the Government of freight forwarders, a class of carriers that heretofore enjoyed only a minute percentage of Government traffic, presents many new and difficult questions involving land-grant rates and equalizations. As to passenger transportation, the disposition of the work volume is growing more difficult, due to the fact that there must be considered matters, not heretofore presented, involving new military rates, special troop rates, charges for transporting wounded and discharged members of the armed forces, transportation of military prisoners, prisoners of war and internees, transportation of local and imported (Mexican) labor and determination of amounts properly due carriers in connection with special agreements for special troop train and chartered bus movements, as well as transportation furnished inductees, accepted and rejected, reservists, and the large number of women now a part of or associated with military and naval organizations.

It is estimated that of the sums expended for passenger and freight transportation there will be for collection 2 percent and 10 percent, respectively. The accomplishment of such collection, however, is predicated upon the availability of sufficient trained personnel to perform the audit of vouchers covering payment of freight and passenger transportation charges. Under normal circumstances, with the present examining personnel, the audit of these items could be kept reasonably current, but under the present circumstances the General Accounting Office had been unable to complete as of July 1, 1943, the audit of any freight transportation vouchers paid by the War Department