F. PAYMENT OF ACCOUNTS.

Section 230. Payment, when authorized.

Disbursement regulations.

secs. 207, 209.

A disbursing officer and agent will not pay an account until it is due. In case of contracts for the performance of services or delivery of articles, payments shall not Purchases; see exceed the value of services rendered or articles actually delivered. An officer and agent, before making any payments whatever from funds placed to his credit, must carefully observe all regulations governing expenditures and money accountability. The regulations are binding and will be strictly followed in passing upon the officer's money accounts.

secs. 212-216.

All disbursements or expenditures must be evidenced Vouchers; by proper vouchers. A claim can be paid only when such payment is authorized by law or by regulations made as authorized by law.

The expenses for meals, lodging, and transportation of registrants after having been inducted into the military service, are not payable from the "Appropriations Registration and Selection for Military Service," and will not therefore be paid by the disbursing officers and agents of the various States.

Section 231. Checking vouchers.

sees. 212-216.

Disbursements shall be made by the disbursing officer Vouchers; and agent upon properly executed vouchers received from Local or District Boards within his State. These vouchers when received should be carefully checked to ascertain if they have been executed in compliance with the law and regulations and contain sufficient data to insure the amount being credited to the account of the disbursing officer and agent when the voucher is audited in the Treasury Department.

Section 232. Vouchers to be numbered consecutively.

Vouchers written in pencil shall not be accepted. Vouchers which show erasures shall not be accepted, unless accompanied by an authenticated statement explaining the erasures.

When more than one article of the same kind and quality is listed on a voucher the unit price must be shown.

A signature on a voucher by mark must be witnessed by a disinterested person, with his address.

Vouchers should be numbered consecutively, and so recorded on the abstract of payments. Such numbers should not be repeated during any fiscal year.

Section 233. Fact of payment by check to be entered on voucher.

If payment is made by check to the order of any company (incorporated or unincorporated) or firm, or individual by name, the fact that the check has been so

see

see

Checks; see C. 220-229.

regulations.

Disbursement drawn should be stated on the voucher, giving the number, date, and amount, and the certificate on the voucher may be signed by an officer, attorney, or agent of the company, or by an officer or agent of the firm or individual, stating the capacity in which he signs, without filing with the voucher evidence of his authority to sign. The disbursing officer in all such cases will deliver the check to such person only as he is satisfied is authorized by the principal to certify to the voucher and receive the check.

Monthly rate.

Section 234. Identification before payment.

When an account is presented by an individual who is not known to the disbursing officer and agent, the latter will require him to be identified.

The form of the signature to the certificate, and to the receipt when required, and the name of the person or business firm as entered at the head of an account must be literally alike.

Section 235. Rules for computation of time.

When applicable, the following rules for the computation of time in payment for services will be observed:

For any full calendar month's service, at a stipulated monthly rate of compensation, payment will be made at such stipulated rate without regard to the number of days in that month.

When service commences on an intermediate day of the month, 30 days will be assumed as the length of the month, whatever be the number of days therein.

When the service terminated on an intermediate day of the month, the actual number of days during which serv ice was rendered in that calendar month will be allowed.

When the service embraces two or more months or parts of months, but one fraction will be made, thus: From September 21 to November 25, inclusive, will be calculated-September 21 to October 20, inclusive, one month; from October 21 to November 20, inclusive, one month; from November 21 to 25, inclusive, 5 days, making the time allowed 2 months and 5 days.

When two fractions of months occur and both are less than a whole month, as from August 21 to September 10, the time will be determined thus: August 21 to 30, inclusive (ignoring the 31st), 10 days; from September 1 to 10, inclusive, 10 days, making the time allowed 20 days.

Services commencing in February will be calculated as though the month contained 30 days, thus: From February 21 to 28 (or 29), inclusive, 10 days. When the service commences on the 28th of that month 3 days will be allowed, and if on the 29th 2 days.

If service commences on the 31st day of the month, payment will not be made for that day.

Unauthorized absence on the 31st day of a month results in the loss of one day's pay.

For services of persons employed at a per diem rate, and in paying for rent, payment will be made for the actualnumber of days during which service actually was rendered or the premises occupied. When services are rendered from one given date to another, the account will state clearly whether both dates are included.

In computing the wages of persons employed at a per diem rate, the day on which service begins and the day en which it ends will be allowed in the computation.

G. ACCOUNTS CURRENT.

Section 236. Original vouchers to accompany accounts current.

The State disbursing officer will forward to the Provost Marshal General, Washington, D. C., for transmission to the Auditor for the War Department, with his account current at the close of business for the preceding month, the original vouchers in support of the account current and will retain the memorandum for his files.

Disbursement regulations.

Per diem rate.

sec. 212-216.

Original vouchers will, if possible, accompany the Vouchers; account current; if subsequently forwarded, suitable explanation will be made; copies will not be accepted unless duly certified and accompanied by satisfactory evidence of the loss or destruction of the originals. Section 237. Time of rendition.

Every disbursing officer and agent must send, by indorsement, to the Provost Marshal General, Washington, D. C., within 10 days following the end of the month to which it relates, an account current of all money received, expended, and remaining on hand during the month. The actual date of forwarding the account should be stated in the indorsement in order that the officials of the Treasury Department may satisfy themselves whether the requirements of law have been complied with. The establishment of 10 days as the period allowed to an officer to prepare and forward his accounts is a statutory provision, the purpose of which is to secure the prompt rendition of accounts of disbursing officers and agents, and to forbid the advancing of money to those officers and agents who are delinquent in forwarding accounts. Any irregularities in the mail service or want of blank forms will not excuse a failure to comply with the statutory provision.

Section 238. Transactions to be shown.

All transactions coming within the time covered by an account current shall be reported therein. No payments or collections not actually made during the period of an account shall be indicated therein. When a fraction of a cent less than one-half occurs in the footing of a voucher it will be disregarded. If the fraction be one-half or greater, it will be reckoned as a cent.

see

Disbursement regulations.

Balances.

Vouchers;

ses. 212-216.

Balances; see. 239.

see

Section 239. Account to be rendered whether disbursements made or not.

Accounts current must be rendered promptly, whether -disbursements have been made or not, until all funds remaining to the credit of the officer have been deposited to the credit of the Treasurer of the United States.

The balances acknowledged by disbursing officers and agents and their analyses thereof must actually represent the state of their business at the close of the last day for which the accounts are rendered. They must so order their business that they may, whenever called upon so to do, close immediately their accounts and analyze their acknowledged balances.

Section 240. Disposition of copies and of supporting vouchers.

The account current will be made in duplicate, one copy to be retained by the disbursing officer and agent as his record of the financial transactions comprised therein, and the other, accompanied by the abstract of expenditures, and all vouchers will be forwarded to the Provost Marshal General, Washington, D. C., as stated above, for administrative examination and reference to the Auditor for the War Department. With the account current will be forwarded all orders or authorities, or copies thereof, covering the expenditures, and other papers upon which the officer and agent relies to have himself relieved from responsibility for funds placed to his credit.

Section 241. Name of appropriation to be stated.

The account current will show funds only under the titles of the general appropriations from which the funds were received.

Section 242. Debit and credit items.

The accounts current must show, under debits, the see balance, by appropriations, on hand from last account, together with all moneys received during the month, with dates thereof and from what source received; under credits the total amounts expended under the general appropriations, amount of deposits to the credit of the Treasurer of the United States, and the balances due the United States, as shown in the certificate on the account current.

Section 213. Cash account.

The cash account on the reverse of the account current is intended to show only cash received, expended, and remaining on hand during the month. Funds placed to the official credit of a disbursing officer and agent and payments made by check should not be exhibited therein. If there are no cash transactions during the month, the negative character of the cash account should be indicated by appropriate entry on its face. If there is any cash balance in the hands of an officer at the time of the

regulations.

rendition of his account current, such cash balance, Disbursement should be counted, verified, and certified to by a dis-interested officer, preferably the property and disbursing officer of the State.

H. CASHBOOK.

Section 244. Preparation, care, and preservation of cashbook.

Every disbursing officer and agent is required to keep a cashbook showing the amount disbursed under each appropriation and apportionment, and the total funds on hand under each. Such cashbooks should be, balanced monthly, and the totals must agree with the account current. The cashbooks are supplied by the Provost Marshal General and each officer is required to provide himself with one. The cashbook is the property Care. of the Federal Government, and shall not be removed from the office of the disbursing officer. The officer and agent to whom issued will see that it is carefully preserved as a part of the records of the Federal Government, that the entries are properly made, and that the book is transferred to his successor. In making a transfer of a cashbook, the officer and agent should take a memorandum receipt therefor from his successor.

Enter only such appropriation headings as are required by the appropriations being handled by the disbursing officer and agent whose accounts the cashbook carries.

The debit column under each appropriation and under miscellaneous receipts should exhibit figures of all receipts of whatever character thereunder, and the corresponding credit column should show the figures of all disbursements, transfers, and deposits of funds to the credit of the Treasurer of the United States.

It is not necessary that each and every transaction affecting cash should be entered separately. Report of cash sales may be carried to the cashbook on one line, the entry in the column heads "From what source," etc., reading "Cash sales as per vouchers."

Funds received should be entered on a single line, as "War warrant No.

Cash collections from whatever source received and the proceeds of sales, which under the regulations are required to be deposited to the credit of the Treasurer of the United States, will be so deposited at once.

In addition to the above, a daily record of all actual cash transactions will be kept in a memorandum book or blotter. The totals of the day's transactions should be entered, using one line for each class of funds.

Disbursing officers and agents who do not, for any reason, receive from the Treasury Department the monthly statement in time for them to analyze their balances as shown on their accounts current should not delay the rendition of their accounts, but should compute their

Entries.