Evening star., 1925-07-12

Continued from First Page.l
that might arise on any account sub.
mitted
The disbursing officers now are un-
DER bonds, generally insufficient to
make good the loss to the Government
II they pay unwarranted accounts. If
they pay out money improperly they
are denied credit at the Treasury and
the charge raised against them and
their suretieS. Oftentimes, due to i'm
proper training or lack of training, a
dlsbursinG officer may pay out a large
amount in good faith which the Gov
ernment has extreme difficulty in re.
covering. This recovery procedure is
costly to the Government-amou
TO loss of many millions of dollars
annually. There would be a big saw
ing to Uncle Sam and the taXpayers
under the proposed new system.
Would Prevent Changes of Funds.
Congress makes its appropriations
for specific purposes or projects. Oft
entlmes Congress turns down some pet
scheme of an administrative officer
who in the past has gone ahead with
this pet project, disregarding the dis
approval of Congress. Under the pres
ent system an administrative officer
ers, to whom disbursing officer is re-
sponsible if he wants to hold his iob
to- support his family, might land oft.
en- does) exert his influence to have
moneys appropriated by Congress for
one particular purpose diverted for
other work in which that particular
administrative officer is more inter
ested. The office of the Controller
General is now kept busy checking up
on 1nI1
the erroneous payments. This makes
excessive extra work for the Controller
Generals office. which could be obvi-
ated under the pre-audit feature of the
proposed new legislation.
Members of Congress who have been
veXed by this practice of administra-
tive officers in switching funds to pur-
poses not approved by Congress well
come this way in which they can con-
troll administrative efforts to subvert
the will of Congress.
The pre-audit would greatly relieve
disbursing officers from their present
responsibility, which has been made
burdenSome by the fact that they are
subject to the will of administrative
officers directing such unauthorized
payments. There are cases of record
in which disbursing officers have been
financially ruined by reason of orders
from superiors to pay improper ac-
counts. There is also a liability of
imprisonment, for the disbursing of
ficer is criminally liable under the
law. If he is employed in one of the
military departments he is liable also
to court-martial for failure to obey
orders from a superior officer directing
improper disbursements - in which
case he is between the devil and
the deep blue sea-
System Has Had Test.
The pre-audit system has been
given a good practical test in the
payment of the so-called Soldiers
bonus" The auditors from the con-
troller generals office are keeping up
to date with the clerical force of the
Veterans Bureau, which figures out
the amount due each applicant on the
record of service credit transmitted
by the adjutant generals Office. In
the period of nine months these
auditors have kept even pace with
the Veterans Bureau on millions of
cases, so that when the Veterans
Bureau force was reduced on July
the General Accounting Office took
off more than half it's auditors who
had been employed on the pre-audit
of veterans claims
This audit was accomplished with
out delay in the disposition Of the