PROVISIONS OF LAW AFFECTING THE FISCAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. REV. ST. SEC. 3677. Control of appropriations of the department. SEC. 3677. The Commissioner of Agriculture shall direct and superintend the expenditure of all money appropriated to the department and render accounts thereof. The designation of Commissioner is changed to Secretary of Agriculture by act February 1, 1889, c. 122. ACT JULY 31, 1894, c. 174. (28 Stat. 162.) Comptroller of Treasury to prescribe forms of keeping and rendering accounts. SEC. 5. The Comptroller of the Treasury shall, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, prescribe the forms of keeping and rendering all public accounts, except those relating to the postal revenues and expenditures therefrom. Act July 31, 1894, c. 174, s. 5, 28 Stat. 206. Certified balances conclusive on departments; revision of accounts; accepting payment on auditor's settlement, conclusive; decisions of auditors to be examined by comptroller; comptroller's decisions to govern. SEC. 8. The balances which may from time to time be certified by the Auditors to the Division of Bookkeeping and Warrants, or to the Postmaster-General, upon the settlements of public accounts, shall be final and conclusive upon the Executive Branch of the Government, except that any person whose accounts may have been settled, the head of the Executive Department, or of the board, commission, or establishment not under the jurisdiction of an Executive Department, to which the account pertains, or the Comptroller of the Treasury, may, within a year, obtain a revision of the said account by the Comptroller of the Treasury, whose decision upon such revision shall be final and conclusive upon the Executive Branch of the Government: Provided, That the Secretary of the Treasury may, when in his judgment the interests of the Government require it, suspend payment and direct th reexamination of any account. Upon a certificate by the Comptroller of the Treasury o any differences ascertained by him upon revision the Au ditor who shall have audited the account shall state al account of such differences, and certify it to the Division of Bookkeeping and Warrants, except that balances foun and accounts stated as aforesaid by the Auditor for the Post Office Department for postal revenues and expendi tures therefrom shall be certified to the Postmaste General. Any person accepting payment under a settlement by an Auditor shall be thereby precluded from obtaining revision of such settlement as to any items upon which payment is accepted; but nothing in this Act shall preven an Auditor from suspending items in an account in orde to obtain further evidence or explanations necessary to their settlement. When suspended items are finally settled a revision may be had as in the case of the origina settlement. Action upon any account or business shall not be delayed awaiting applications for revision: Pro vided, That the Secretary of the Treasury shall make regu lations fixing the time which shall expire before a warrant is issued in payment of an account certified as provided in sections seven and eight of this Act. The Auditors shall, under the direction of the Comp troller of the Treasury, preserve, with their vouchers and certificates, all accounts which have been finally adjusted. All decisions by Auditors making an original construc tion or modifying an existing construction of statutes shall be forthwith reported to the Comptroller of the Treasury, and items in any account affected by such decisions shall be suspended and payment thereof withheld until the Comptroller of the Treasury shall approve, disapprove, or modify such decisions and certify his actions to the Auditor. All decisions made by the Comptroller of the Treas ury under this Act shall be forthwith transmitted to the Auditor or Auditors whose duties are affected thereby. Disbursing officers, or the head of any executive depart ment, or other establishment not under any of the execu tive departments, may apply for and the Comptroller of the Treasury shall render his decision upon any question involving a payment to be made by them or under them, which decision, when rendered, shall govern the Auditor and the Comptroller of the Treasury in passing upon the account containing said disbursement. Act July 31, 1894, c. 174, s. 8, 28 Stat. 207, Time and manner of rendering accounts; advances of money withheld on delinquency; annual report of delinquencies. SEC. 12. All monthly accounts shall be mailed or otherwise sent to the proper officer at Washington within ten days after the end of the month to which they relate, and quarterly and other accounts within twenty days after the period to which they relate, and shall be transmitted to and received by the auditors within twenty days of their actual receipt at the proper office in Washington in the case of monthly, and sixty days in the case of quarterly and other accounts. Should there be any delinquency in this regard at the time of the receipt by the auditor of a requisition for an advance of money, he shall disapprove the requisition, which he may also do for other reasons arising out of the condition of the officer's accounts for whom the advance is requested; but the Secretary of the Treasury may overrule the auditor's decision as to the sufficiency of these latter reasons: Provided, That the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe suitable rules and regulations, and may make orders in particular cases, relaxing the requirement of mailing or otherwise sending accounts, as aforesaid, within ten or twenty days, or waiving delinquency, in such cases only in which there is, or is likely to be, a manifest physical difficulty in complying with the same, it being the purpose of this provision to require the prompt rendition of accounts without regard to the mere convenience of the officers, and to forbid the advance of money to those delinquent in rendering them: Provided further, That should there be a delay by the administrative departments beyond the aforesaid twenty or sixty days in transmitting accounts, an order of the President, cr, in the event of the absence from the seat of Government cr sickness of the President, an order of the Secretary of the Treasury, in the particular case, shall be necessary to authorize the advance of money requested: * * * The Secretary of the Treasury shall, on the first Monday of January in each year, make report to Congress of such officers and administrative departments and offices of the Government as were, respectively, at any time during the last preceding fiscal year delinquent in rendering or transmitting accounts to the proper offices in Washington and the cause therefor, and in each case indicating whether the delinquency was waived, together with such officers * * * as were found upon final settlement of their accounts to have been indebted to the Government, with the amount of such indebtedness in each case, and who, at |