ARTICLE XLI. PUBLIC PROPERTY, MONEY, AND ACCOUNTS.

989. All officers of the Pay, Commissary, and Quartermaster's Departments, and military store-keepers, shall, previous to their entering on the duties of their respective offices, give good and sufficient bonds to the United States fully to account for all moneys and public property which they may receive, in such sums as the Secretary of War shall direct; and the officers aforesaid shall renew their bonds every four years, and oftener if the Secretary of War shall so require, and whenever they receive a new commission or appointment.

990. The sureties to the bond shall be bound jointly and severally for the whole amount of the bond, and shall satisfy the Secretary of War that they are worth jointly double the amount of the bond, by the affidavit of each surety, stating that he is worth, over and above his debts and liabilities, the amount of the bond or such other sum as he may specify; and each surety shall state his place of residence.

991. The chiefs of disbursing departments who submit requisitions for money to be remitted to disbursing officers, shall take care that no more money than actually needed is in the hands of any officer.

992. The Treasury Department having provided, by arrangement with the assistant treasurers at various points, secure depositories for funds in the hands of disbursing officers, all disbursing officers are required to avail themselves, as far as possible, of this arrangement, by depositing with the assistant treasurers such funds as are not wanted for immediate use, and drawing the same in convenient sums as wanted.

993. No public funds shall be exchanged except for gold and silver. When the funds furnished are gold and silver, all payments shall be in gold and silver. When the funds furnished are drafts, they shall be presented at the place of payment, and paid according to law; and payments shall be made in the funds so received for the drafts, unless said funds or said drafts can be exchanged for gold and silver at par. If any disbursing officer shall violate any of these provisions, he shall be suspended by the Secretary of War, and reported to the President, and promptly removed from office or restored to his trust and duties as to the President may seem just and proper. (Act August 6, 1846.)

994. No disbursing officer shall accept, or receive, or transmit to the Treasury to be allowed in his favor, any receipt or voucher from a creditor of the United States without having paid to such creditor, in such funds as he received for disbursement, or such other funds as he is authorized by the preceding article to Lake in exchange, the full amount specified in such receipt or voucher; and every such act shall be deemed to be a conversion to his own use of the amount specified in such receipt or voucher. And no officer in the military service charged with the safe-keeping, transfer, or disbursement of public money, shall convert to his own use, or invest in any kind of merchandise or property, or loan with or without interest, or deposit in any bank, or exchange for other funds, except as allowed in the preceding article, any public money intrusted to him; and every such act shall be deemed to be a felony and an embezzlement of so much money as may be so taken, converted, invested, used, loaned, deposited, or exchanged. (Act August 6, 1846).

995. Any officer who shall directly or indirectly sell or dispose of, for a premium, any Treasury note, draft, warrant, or other public security in his hands for disbursement, or sell or dispose of the proceeds or avails thereof without making returns of such premium and accounting therefor by charging it in his accounts to the credit of the United States, will forthwith be dismissed by the President. (Act August 6, 1846.) 996. If any disbursing officer shall bet at cards or any game of hazard, his commanding officer shall suspend his functions, and require him to turn over all the public funds in his keeping, and shall immediately report the case to the proper bureau of the War Department.

997. All officers are forbid to give or take any receipt in blank for public money or property; but in all cases the voucher shall be made out in full, and the true date, place, and exact amount of money, in words, shall be written out in the receipt before it is signed.

998. When a signature is not written by the hand of the party, it must be witnessed.

999. No advance of public money shall be made, except advances to disbursing officers, and advances by order of the War Department to officers on distant stations, where they cannot receive their pay and emoluments regularly; but in all cases of contracts for the performance of any service, or the delivery of articles of any description, payment shall not exceed the value of the service rendered, or of the articles delivered, previously to such payment.

1000. No officer disbursing or directing the disbursement of money for the military service shall be concerned, directly or indirectly, in the purchase or sale, for commercial purposes, of any article intended for, making a part of, or appertaining to the department of the public service in which he is engaged, nor shall take, receive, or apply to his own use ,my gain or emolument, under the guise of presents or otherwise, for negotiating or transacting any public business, other than what is or may be allowed by law.

1001. No wagon-master or forage-master shall be interested or concerned. directly or indirectly, in any wagon or other means of transport employed by the United States, nor in the purchase or sale of any property procured for or belonging to the United States, except as the agent of the United States.

1002. No officer or agent in the military service shall purchase from any other person in the military service, or make any contract with any such person to furnish supplies or services, or make any purchase or contract in which such person shall be admitted to any share or part, or to any benefit to arise therefrom.

1003. No person in the military service whose salary, pay, or emoluments is or are fixed by law or regulations, shall receive any additional pay, extra allowance, or compensation in any form whatever, for the disbursement of public money, or any other service or duty whatsoever, unless the same shall be authorized by law, and explicitly set out in the appropriation.

1004. All accounts of expenditures shall set out a sufficient explanation of the object, necessity, and propriety of the expenditure.

1005. The facts on which an account depends must be stated and vouched by the certificate of an officer, or other sufficient evidence.

1006. If any account paid on the certificate of an officer to the facts is afterward disallowed for error of fact in the certificate, it shall pass to the credit of the disbursing officer, and be charged to the officer who gave the certificate.

1007. An officer shall have credit for an expenditure of money or property made in obedience to the order of his commanding officer. If the expenditure is disallowed, it shall be charged to the officer who ordered it.

1008. Disbursing officers, when they have the money, shall pay cash, and not open an account. Heads of bureaus shall take care, by timely remittances, to obviate the necessity of any purchases on credit.

1009. When a disbursing officer is relieved, he shall certify the out. standing debts to his successor, and transmit an account of the same to the head of the bureau, and turn over his public money and property appertaining to the service from which he is relieved to his successor, unless otherwise ordered.

1010. The chief of each military bureau of the War Department shall, under the direction of the Secretary of War, regulate, as far as practicable, the employment of hired persons required for the administrative service of his department.

1011. When practicable, persons hired in the military service shall be paid at the end of the calendar month, and when discharged. Separate pay-rolls shall be made for each month.

1012. When a hired person is discharged and not paid, a certified statement of his account shall be given him.

1013. Property, paid for or not, must be taken up on the return, and accounted for when received.

1014. No officer has authority to insure public property or money.

1015. Disbursing officers are not authorized to settle with heirs, executors, or administrators, except by instructions from the proper bureau of the War Department upon accounts duly audited and certified by the proper accounting officers of the Treasury.

1016. Public horses, mules, oxen, tools, and implements shall be branded conspicuously U. S. before being used in service, and all other public property that it may be useful to mark; and all public property having the brand of the U.S. when sold or condemned, shall be branded with the letter C.

1017. No public property shall be used, nor labor hired for the public be employed, for any private use whatsoever not authorized by the regulations of the service.

1018. When public property becomes damaged, except by fair wear and tear, or otherwise unsuitable for use, or a deficiency is found in it, the officer accountable for the same shall report the case to the commanding officer, who shall, if necessary, appoint a Board of Survey.

1019. Boards of Survey shall have no power to condemn public property. They are called only for the purpose of establishing data by which questions of administrative responsibility may be determined, and the adjustment of accounts facilitated; as, for example, to assess to amount and kind of damage or deficiency which public property may have sustained from any extraordinary cause, not ordinary wear, either in transit or in store, or in actual use, whether from accident, unusual wastage, or otherwise, and to set forth the circumstances and fix the responsibility of such damage, whether on the carrier, or the person accountable for the property or having it immediately in charge; to make inventories of property ordered to be abandoned, when the articles have not been enumerated in the orders; to assess the prices at which damaged clothing may be issued to troops, and the proportion in which supplies shall be issued in consequence of damage that renders them at the usual rate unequal to the allowance which the Regulations contemplate; to verify the discrepancy between the invoices and the actual quantity or description of property transferred from one officer to another, and ascertain, as fai as possible, where and how the discrepancy has occurred, whether in the lands of the carrier or the officer making the transfer; and to make inventories and report on the condition of public property in the possession of officers at the time of their death. The action of the board for these authorized objects will be complete with the approval of the commanding officer, provided that neither he nor any of the board are interested parties; but will be subject to revision by higher authority. In no case, however, will the report of the board supersede the depositions which the law requires with reference to deficiencies and damage.

1020. Boards of Survey will not be convened by any other than the Commanding officer present, and will be composed of as many officers, not exceeding three, as may be present for duty, exclusive always of the commanding officer and the officer responsible in the matter to be reported on; but in case the two latter only are present, then the one not responsible will perform the duties, and the responsible officer will perform them only if there be no other recourse. The proceedings of the board will be signed by each member, and a copy forwarded by the approving officer to the head-quarters of the department or army in the field, as the case may be, duplicates being furnished to the officer accountable for the property

1021. All surveys and reports having in view the condemnation of public property, for whatever cause, will be made by the commanding officers of posts or other separate commands, or by Inspectors-General, or inspectors specially designated by the commander of a department or an army in the field, or by higher authority Such surveys and reports having a different object from those of Boards of Survey, will be required independently of any preliminary action of a board on the same matter.

1022. When public property is received by any officer, he will make a careful examination to ascertain its quality and condition, but without breaking packages until issues are to be made, unless there should be cause to suppose the contents defective; and in any of the cases supposed in the preceding paragraph, he will apply for a Board of Survey for the purposes therein set forth. If he deem the property unfit for use and that the public interest requires it to be condemned, he will, in addition, report that fact to the commanding officer, who will make, or cause to be made, a critical inspection of it-according as he may be commander of a post only, or have a higher command. If the inspector deem the property fit, it shall be received and used. If not, he will forward a formal inspection report to the commander empowered to give orders in the case. The same rule will be observed, according to the nature of the case, with reference to property already on hand. The person accountable for the property, or having it in charge, will submit an inventory, which will accompany or be embodied in the inspection report, stating how long the property has been in his possession, how long in use, and from whom it was received. The inspector's report will state the exact condition of each article, and what disposition it is expedient to make of it: as, to be destroyed, to be dropped as being of no value, to be broken up, to be repacked or repaired, or to be sold. The inspector will certify on his report that he has examined each article, and that its condition is as stated. If the commanding officer, who ordinarily would be the inspector, is himself accountable for the property, the next officer in rank present for duty will act as the inspector. The authority to inspect and condemn will not, without special instructions, be exercised by commanding officers of arsenals with reference to ordnance and ordnance stores, but only in regard to other unserviceable supplies.

1023. An officer commanding a department, or an army in the field may give orders, on the report of the authorized inspectors, to sell, destroy, or make such other disposition of any condemned property as the case may require-ordnance and ordnance stores alone excepted, for which the orders of the War Department must always be taken. But if the property be of very considerable value, and there should be reason to suppose that it could be advantageously applied or disposed of elsewhere than within his command, he will refer the matter to the Chief of the Staff Department to which it belongs, for the orders of the War Department. No other persons then those above designated, or the General-in. chief, will order the final disposition of condemned property; saving only in the case of horses which should be killed at once to prevent contagion and of provisions or other stores which are rapidly deteriorating, when the immediate commander may have to act perforce. Inventories of condemned property will be made in triplicate, one to be retained by the person accountable, one to accompany his accounts, and one to be forwarded through the department or other superior head-quarters to the Chief of the Staff Department to which the property belongs. Separate inventories must be made of the articles to be repaired, of those to be broken up, those to be sold, to be dropped, &c.

1024. Every inspector, member of a Board of Survey, and commander acting on their proceedings, shall be answerable that his action has been proper and judicious, according to the Regulations and the circumstances of the case.

1025. As far as practicable, every officer in charge of public property, whether it be in use or in store, will endeavor by timely repairs to keep tt in serviceable condition, for which purpose the necessary means will be allowed on satisfactory requisitions; and property in store so repaired will be issued for further use. Unserviceable arms will be sent to an arsenal for repair. Provisions and other perishable stores will be repacked whenever it may be necessary for their preservation and their value will justify the expense, which will be a legitimate charge against the department to which they belong. Public animals will not be condemned for temporary disease or want of condition, but may, by order of the commanding officer after inspection, be turned in for rest and treatment, if unfit for the service for which they are immediately required.

1026. Public property shall not be transferred gratuitously from one staff department to another; nor shall the funds of one be used to liquid ate the debts of another.

1027. If any article of public property be lost or damaged by neglect or fault of any officer or soldier, he shall pay the value of such article, or amount of damage, or cost of repairs, at such rates as a Board of Survey, with the approval of the commanding officer, may assess, according to the place and circumstances of the loss or damage. And he shall, moreover, be proceeded against as the Articles of War provide, if he demand a trial by court-martial, or the circumstances should require it.

1028. Charges against a soldier shall be set against his pay on the muster-roll-but only on clear proof, and never without an inquiry, if he demand it. Charges against an officer to be set against his pay shall be promptly reported to the Secretary of War.*

* If the pay of any officer or soldier's wrongfully withhold for arrears or liabilities to the United States, a civil remedy is provided by the act of January 25, 1828.

1029. If any article of public property be embezzled, or by neglect lost or damaged, by any person hired in the public service, the value or damage, as ascertained, if necessary, by a Board of Survey, shall be charged to him, and set against any pay or money due him.

1030. Public property lost or destroyed in the military service must be accounted for by affidavit, or the certificate of a commissioned officer, or other satisfactory evidence.

1031. Affidavits or depositions may be taken before any officer in the list, as follows, when recourse cannot be had to any before named on said list, which fact shall be certified by the officer offering the evidence: 1st. a civil magistrate competent ta administer oaths; 2d. a judge advocate; 3d. the recorder of a garrison or regimental court-martial; 4th. the adjutant of a regiment; 5th. a commissioned officer.

1032. Military stores and other army supplies regularly condemned, and ordered for sale, shall be sold for cash at auction, on due public notice, and in such market as the public interest may require. The officer making the sale will bid in and suspend the sale when, in his opinion, better prices may be got. Expenses of the sale will be paid from its proceeds. The auctioneer's certified recount of the sales in detail, and the vouchers for the expenses of the sale, will be reported to the chief of the department to which the property belonged. The net proceeds will be applied as the Secretary of War may direct.

1033. No officer making returns of property shall drop from his return any public property as worn out or unserviceable until it has been condemned, after proper inspection, and ordered to be so dropped.

1034. An officer issuing stores shall deliver or transmit to the receiving officer an exact list of them in duplicate invoices, and the receiving officer shall return him duplicate receipts.

1035. When an officer to whom stores are forwarded has reason to suppose them miscarried, he shall promptly inform the issuing and for. warding officer, and the bureau of the department to which the property appertains.

1036. When stores received do not correspond in amount or quality with the invoice, they will be examined by a Board of Survey, and a copy of the report of the board be communicated to the proper bureau, to the issuing and forwarding officer, and to the officer authorized to pay the transportation account. Damages recovered from the carrier or other party liable, will be refunded to the proper department.

1037. On the death of any officer in charge of public property or money, the commanding officer shall appoint a Board of Survey to take an inventory of the same, which he shall forward to the proper bureau of the War Department, and he shall designate an officer to take charge of the said property or money till orders in the case are received from the proper authority.

1038. When an officer in charge of public property is removed from the care of it, the commanding officer shall designate an officer to receive it, or take charge of it himself, till a successor be regularly appointed. Where no officer can remain to receive it, the commanding officer will take suitable means to secure it, and report the facts to the proper authority.

1039. Every officer having public money to account for, and failing to render his account thereof quarter-yearly, with the vouchers necessary to its correct and prompt settlement, within three months after the expiration of the quarter if resident in the United States, and within six months if resident in a foreign country, will be promptly dismissed by the President, unless he shall explain the default to the satisfaction of the President. (Act January 31, 1823.)

1040. Every officer intrusted with public money or property shall render all prescribed returns and accounts to the bureau of the department in which he is serving, where all such returns and accounts shall pass through a rigid administrative scrutiny before the money accounts are transmitted to the proper offices of the Treasury Department for settlement.

1041. The head of the bureau shall cause his decision on each account to be endorsed on it. He shall bring to the notice of the Secretary of War all accounts and matters of account that require or merit it. When an account is suspended or disallowed, the bureau shall notify it to the officer, that he may have early opportunity to submit explanations or take an appeal to the Secretary of War.

1042. When an account is suspended or disallowed in the proper office of the Treasury Department, or explanation or evidence required from the officer, it shall be promptly notified to him by the head of the military bureau. And all vouchers, evidence, or explanation returned by him to the Treasury Department shall pass through the bureau.

1043. Chiefs of the disbursing departments shall, under the direction ok the Secretary of War, designate, as far as practicable, the places where the principal contracts and purchases shall be made and supplies procured for distribution.

1044. All purchases and contracts for supplies or services for the army, except personal services, when the public exigencies do not require the immediate delivery of the article or performance of the service, shall be made by advertising a sufficient time previously for proposals respecting the same.

1045. The officer advertising for proposals shall, when the intended contract or purchase is considerable, transmit forthwith a copy of the advertisement and report of the ease to the proper bureau of the War Department.

1046. Contracts will be made with the lowest responsible bidder, and purchases from the lowest bidder who produces the proper article. But when such lowest bids are unreasonable, they will be rejected, and bids again invited by public notice; and all bids and advertisements shall be sent to the bureau.

1047. When sealed bids are required, the time of opening them shall be specified, and bidders have privilege to be present at the opening.

1048. When immediate delivery or performance is required by the public exigency, the article or service required may be procured by open purchase or contract at the places and in the mode in which such articles are usually bought and sold, or such services engaged, between individuals.

1049. Contracts shall be made in quadruplicate; one to be kept by the officer, one by the contractor, and two to be sent to the military bureau, one of which for the office of the Second Comptroller of the Treasury.

1050. The contractor shall give bond, with good and sufficient security, for the true and faithful performance of his contract; and each surety shall state his place of residence.

1051. An express condition shall be inserted in contracts that no member of Congress shall be admitted to any share or part therein, or any benefit to arise therefrom.

1052. No contract shall be made except under a law authorizing it, or an appropriation adequate to its fulfilment, except contracts by the Secretary of War for the subsistence or clothing of the army, or the Quartermaster's Department, which shall not exceed the necessities of the current year.

1053. It is the duty of every commanding officer to enforce a rigid economy in the public expenses.

1054. The commander of a geographical district or department shall require abstracts to be rendered to him, at least once in each quarter, by every officer under his orders who is charged with the care of public property or the disbursement of public money, showing all property received, issued, and expended by the officer rendering the account, and the property remaining on hand, and all moneys received, paid, or contracted to be paid by him, and the balances remaining in his hands; and where such officer is serving under any intermediate commander, as of the post, regiment, &c., the abstracts shall be revised by such commander; and both the accounting officer and the commanding officer shall accompany the abstracts with full explanations of every circumstance that may be necessary to a complete understanding, by the commander of the department, of all the items on the abstracts. These abstracts, where the accounting officer is serving in more than one staff department, will be made separately for each.

1055. The commander of the department shall promptly correct all irregularities and extravagances which he may discover. He shall also forward, as soon as practicable, the money abstracts to the bureau of the War Department to which the accounts appertain, with such remarks as may be necessary to explain his opinions and action thereon.

1056. All estimates for supplies of property or money for the public service within a department shall be forwarded through the commander of the department, and carefully revised by him. And all such estimates shall go through the immediate commander, if such there be, of the officer rendering the estimate, as of the post or regiment, who shall be required by the department commander to revise the estimates for the service of his own command.

1057. The administrative control exercised by department commanders shall, when troops are in the field, devolve on the commanders or divisions; or, when the command is less than a division, on the commander of the whole.

1058. No land shall be purchased for the United States except under a law authorizing such purchase.

1059. No public money shall be expended for the purchase of any land, nor for erecting armories, arsenals, forts, fortifications, or other permanent public buildings, until the written opinion of the Attorney-General shall be had in favor of the validity of the title to the land or site, nor, if the land be within any State of the United States, until a cession of the jurisdiction by the Legislature of the State.

1060. No permanent buildings for the army, as barracks, quarters, hospitals, store-houses, offices, or stables, or piers, or wharves, shall be erected but by order of the Secretary of War, and according to the plan directed by him, and in consequence of appropriations made by law. And no alteration shall be made in any such public building without authority from the War Department.

1061. Complete title papers, with full and exact maps, plans, and drawings of the public lands purchased, appropriated, or designed for permanent military fortifications, will be collected, recorded, and filed in the Bureau of the Corps of Engineers; of the public lands appropriated or designated for armories, arsenals, and ordnance depots, will be collected, recorded, and filed in the Ordnance Bureau; of all other land belonging to the United States, and under the charge of the War Department for barracks, posts, cantonments, or other military uses, will be collected, recorded, and filed in the office of the Quartermaster-General of the army.

1062. A copy of the survey of tte land at each post, fort, arsenal, and depot, furnished from the proper bureau, will be carefully preserved in the office of the commanding officer.

SIGNAL OFFICER.