(Witness: Zappone.) Number of persons who were removed from the service of the Depart- Number of persons appointed to positions excepted from civil-service Total number 56 27 14 665 279 5, 012 Summary of appointments of persons and changes affecting employees in the United States Department of Agriculture during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1906. IN THE UNCLASSIFIED SERVICE. Number of appointments in the unclassified service in Washington, Number of separations, including resignations, terminations of appoint- Number of unclassified-service appointments, being laborers, in the forests Total number 74 77 1,539 1, 691 5, 012 Total number of actions respecting persons in the classified civil service. Total number 6, 703 Number of persons employed in the different bureaus, divisions, and offices on July 1, 1906, showing the number employed outside of Washington, D. C., and the number employed in Washington, D. C., and the totals thereof. • Of these, 64 are employed regularly at various times during the year and 110 are employed occasionally; but none of these 174 were employed on July 1, 1906. GROWTH OF THE DEPARTMENT. On September 30, 1861, the Agricultural Division of the Department of the Interior, being the immediate predecessor of the United States Department of Agriculture, consisted of nine persons. (Witnesses: Burch, Zappone.) The Department of Agriculture was established July 1, 1862, according to the provisions of an act to establish the Department of Agriculture, approved May 15, 1862 (vol. 12, chap. 72, pp. 387, 388, U. S. Stat. L.). Growth of the force of the Department from September 30, 1863, to July 1, 1906. a The large increase on July 1, 1891, resulted from the transfer of the Weather Bureau to the Department of Agriculture on that date. The CHAIRMAN. Here is an item, Mr. Burch, the "American Audit Company, services in 1905, $77.50." What sort of services were those? Mr. BURCH. I think Mr. Zappone can answer that better. Mr. ZAPPONE. I was not then located at the Department, but I understand that it became necessary for the Secretary to look up the financial transactions of the chief of one of the bureaus, and in so doing he had to employ secret-service aid from the outside, such assistance from the Treasury Department not being available at that time. American Audit Company is really nothing more than a detective agency, and for the services of the people assigned by them to that work the Department had to pay $77.50. The CHAIRMAN. He wanted to get an idea as to whether the matter was regular or not? Mr. ZAPPONE. That is it. I believe that application was made to the Treasury to see if they would have the service performed by secret-service men, but there was no one available, and the information had to be obtained at once. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Burch, you do not purchase any supplies, do you? Mr. BURCH. No, sir. I might say, however, that I am chairman of the committee, or board of awards. If we want to purchase anything, we send out informal bids to various firms who manufacture the lines of goods on which the bids are sent out. When the bids are received they are passed upon by a committee appointed by the Secretary and award made to the bidder who is the lowest and best. That is the only connection I have with that subject. The CHAIRMAN. Is there a system regarding the matter of the purchase of supplies that has been adopted by some of the Departments of the Government, originated, I think, by a gentleman by the name of Hadley, though I don't know that I have his name right? Mr. ZAPPONE. I have heard of none. (Witnesses: Burch, Zappone.) The CHAIRMAN. Do you have the same method in your Department as that employed in the other Departments? Mr. BURCH. We have a committee that makes awards in the spring for the annual supplies, and all other supplies purchased during the year that can not be anticipated at the spring meeting are bought on informal contract by sending out informal bids and then they are awarded by this committee. The CHAIRMAN. The only awards that you speak of are awarded to public bidders? Mr. BURCH. Yes, sir; after advertisement. The CHAIRMAN. And the submission of bids? Mr. BURCH. Yes; the notice is given to the public generally. The CHAIRMAN. What are informal bids, as distinguished from the others? Mr. BURCH. Special articles not awarded in the annual award, as explained. The CHAIRMAN. Do you advertise for those? Mr. BURCH. We advertise by sending to all manufacturers specifications of what we need and solicit bids on the articles mentioned. The CHAIRMAN. And then the award is made to the lowest bidder? Mr. BURCH. To the lowest and best bidder. Not always to the lowest, as the article that they bid on might not comply with the specifications that is, may not be suitable. In that case the chief of the bureau passes upon the article as to whether it will suit his purposes. The CHAIRMAN. That is, the bid would either not be in response to the advertisement or else the samples submitted would not be the kind of article you wanted to use? Those would be the two contingencies under which a man would be eliminated from the bidding? Mr. BURCH. Yes, sir; but usually it is awarded to the lowest bidder. Mr. ZAPPONE. May I make a statement in that connection? The CHAIRMAN. Certainly. Mr. ZAPPONE. Under section 3709 of the Revised Statutes competition is required in the purchase of all supplies and material except in cases of extreme emergency. This section reads as follows: All purchases and contracts for supplies or services in any of the Departments of the Government, except for personal services, shall be made by advertising a sufficient time previously for proposals respecting the same, when the public exigencies do not require the immediate delivery of the articles or performance of the service. When immediate delivery or performance is required by the public exigency, the articles or service required may be procured by open purchase or contract at the places and in the manner in which such articles are usually bought and sold or such services engaged between Individuals. Several years ago the Department of Agriculture, on account of the technical character of its work and the technical character of many of the supplies it had to use, secured an amendment to that law which permits the purchase of supplies in the open market up to $50. The amendment is as follows: That hereafter section 3709 of the Revised Statutes of the United States shall not be construed to apply to any purchases or services rendered in the Department of Agriculture when the aggregate amount involved does not exceed the sum of $50. (Witness: Zappone.) I also submit below a copy of General Order No. 21, issued by the Secretary of Agriculture in 1904, bearing upon this subject: GENERAL ORDER NO. 21. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, Washington, D. C., March 10, 1899. To the Chiefs of Bureaus and Divisions and other officers, agents, and employees of the Department of Agriculture: Your attention is invited to a paragraph in the act of Congress approved March 1, instant, making appropriations for this Department for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1900, reading as follows: "That hereafter section thirty-seven hundred and nine of the Revised Statutes of the United States shall not be construed to apply to any purchase or service rendered in the Department of Agriculture when the aggregate amount involved does not exceed the sum of fifty dollars." The effect of this enactment is to place upon the Secretary of Agriculture the entire responsibilty of determining to what extent, if any, the principles of competition shall be applied in any case where the amount involved is fifty dollars or less. The advantages of honest competition are, in most cases, too great and too distinctly manifest to be neglected. You are, therefore, advised that hereafter, as heretofore, it will be the policy of the Department to avail itself of these advantages in all cases where competition is practicable. The requirements of paragraph 9b of the Fiscal Regulations will remain in full force and effect, except in so far as they are modified by the next following paragraph (9c). The Chief of the Supply Division in the Department and the Chief of the Division of Supplies in the Weather Bureau, who are the purchasing officers of the Department, and whose duty it is to prepare all requisitions, are hereby directed to enforce a strict compliance with the regulations in respect to purchases. Competition must be secured in every case when practicable. It should be especially noted that purchases and services are exempted from the operations of sec. 3709 only when the aggregate amount involved does not exceed fifty dollars. It would, therefore, be clearly an evasion of the law to divide a purchase for the purpose of keeping below the limit named. Congress has granted the Department all that was asked for in this respect, and good faith demands that the representatives of the Department obey the statute in its letter and spirit. The Chief of the Division of Accounts, for the Department, and the assistant chief, on the part of the Weather Bureau, may, therefore, before passing upon proposed expenditures, require evidence showing that the law and the regulations have been complied with in all particulars. JAMES WILSON, Secretary of Agriculture. The CHAIRMAN. Would that create a condition where orders could be split up in amounts? Mr. ZAPPONE. Not at all; that is not the purpose of it. The CHAIRMAN. No such practice as that has ever been adopted by the Department? Mr. ZAPPONE. No. Under section 3709, as amended in 1894, each year, in the spring, every Department of the Government service. advertises in at least six newspapers of the country that proposals will be received for the various articles of supplies required for the departmental service, to be opened on a certain date fixed by the Secretary of the Treasury, and being the same for all Departments. In our Department there is a board of award appointed by the Secretary for the consideration of proposals for annual supplies, as per order of the Secretary, which follows: GENTLEMEN: You are hereby appointed a board of award, in behalf of the United States Department of Agriculture, for the opening of bids, for the examining of samples submitted, and for making recommendations as to awards for annual supplies for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1906. Bids will be opened in accordance with advertisement at 2 o'clock in the afternoon on Thursday, May 4, in the presence of bidders or their attorneys, as provided by section 3710, Revised Statutes of the United States. As soon as practicable thereafter you will carefully prepare schedules of all the proposals submitted. These schedules, when fully completed, together with the proposals, you will deliver to the Chief of the Division of Accounts, who will forward them to the United States Treasury Department, in compliance with the provisions contained in the act of Congress approved January 27, 1894, amending section 3709, Revised Statutes. In making your recommendations you will conform to the requirements of the schedules, avoiding all needless division of contracts and giving careful consideration to the actual needs of the service. In the acceptance of proposals and in the making of your awards you will have in view both excellence of quality and economy in price, not necessarily the lowest bid in each case, but reasons must be furnished to me in each case where the award is not made to the lowest bidder, and you will otherwise fully consider the interests of the Department. You will consider carefully the instructions to bidders and make awards as nearly as practicable in accordance therewith. You will note carefully any changes that may be made to advantage in the schedules and the methods of submitting samples, and report the same in writing to the Chief of the Division of Accounts, with a view to improving the forms and general plan of securing bids. You will notify all bidders by circular letter of your findings in relation to the proposals submitted by them, respectively. Properly ruled sheets for tabulating bids and printed circulars for notifying bidders will be furnished you by the Chief of the Division of Accounts, with whom you will confer freely concerning work of the board and for whom you will prepare a list of the accepted bidders, giving the aggregate amount awarded to each as a basis for determining the amount of the bond required in each case. The chief clerk will detail such clerical assistance as may be necessary in expediting your work, which should be completed at the earliest practicable date. You are further authorized and directed to call upon the chiefs of the various bureaus and divisions whenever necessary for expert opinion in determining the merits of the different proposals before you; also for the temporary detail of competent persons to aid you in passing upon technical questions relating to the supplies intended for special use in connection with the work of their respective offices, and the said chiefs of bureaus and divisions are hereby required to make such details upon requests from the chairman of your board. JAMES WILSON, Secretary. By this board the proposals are scheduled, abstracted, and forwarded to the Secretary of Agriculture with recommendation. Under the law they are sent by him to the Secretary of the Treasury, to be there passed upon by a board, created by the statutes referred to, consisting of one of the Assistant Secretaries of the Treasury and Interior Departments and one of the Assistant Postmasters-General. If this board finds, after a comparison of the bids, that one Department is about to pay more than another for standard articles of stationery and miscellaneous supplies, such as fuel, forage, ice, etc., it calls attention to the matter and may direct that new proposals be invited through new advertisements. One year the bids for fuel were very high. In fact, several Departments got no bid at all, owing to a threatened strike. The result was that new bids were ordered and 23848-07-8 |