CHAPTER 5

ACTIVITIES WITHIN THE JURISDICTION OF THE
UNDERSECRETARY

1. The Undersecretary

The Undersecretary has direct supervision of all activities of the fiscal offices of the government, as well as over the following: All matters pertaining to foreign loans under the various Liberty Bond Acts providing for loans of about ten billion dollars to the various countries engaged with the United States in the war with Germany; payments, advances, and loans to railroads under the Transportation Act of 1920.

The Undersecretary is authorized to act for and by direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, in any branch of the department, and represents the Secretary in dealings with the Federal Reserve Board, the War Finance Corporation, and the Farm Loan Board.

The Federal Farm Loan Bureau, under his supervision, will be discussed in a separate chapter.

2. Commissioner of Accounts and Deposits

The Office of Commissioner of Accounts and Deposits was created in January, 1920, on account of the large increase in the accounting transactions of the Treasury in connection with receipts and expenditures and the deposit of public funds throughout the country. The Commissioner, under the Fiscal Assistant Secretary, was given administrative supervision over the Division of Bookkeeping and Warrants and the Division of Public Moneys and their relations to the office of the Treasurer of the United States. He was later given supervisory direction over the Division of Deposits, which was created on May 19, 1920, as a part of this reorganization. The Commissioner likewise was given control of all accounts of investments of the government and was made responsible for the proper custody with the Treasurer of the United States and the Federal Reserve Banks of all investments and securities for which the Secretary is responsible other than those related to the public debt operations.

3. Division of Bookkeeping and Warrants

This Division, established in 1894,1 is by law the official bookkeeping organization of the government, so far as appropriation accounts and covering of public moneys into the Treasury are concerned. The accounts and records of disbursements in this Division are on the basis of warrants issued and necessarily differ materially from the actual cash expenditures as shown in the daily treasury statement prepared in the office of the Treasurer of the United States. Reconciliations between these accounts, both as to receipts and expenditures, are made in order to exhibit properly the receipts and expenditures of the gov

1 Act July 31, 1894 (28 Stat. 208).

ernment. Among the many functions of this Division, the following are the most important:

(a) Analyzes all acts of Congress carrying appropriations and opens up corresponding appropriation accounts on its ledgers;

(b) Issues all warrants for placing disbursing funds to the credit of disbursing officers and for the payments by the Treasury of claims settled by the General Accounting Office;

(c) Issues all warrants covering into the Treasury the revenues and receipt of the government from the various authorized sources, and all repayments to the Treasury of the unexpended balances of appropriations;

(d) Handles the work involved in the Secretary's Special Deposit Accounts, including those of the Alien Property Custodian kept with the Treasurer of the United States;

(e) Compiles for submission through the Bureau of the Budget the regular estimates of appropriations and the supplementary and deficiency estimates for the service of the Treasury;

(f) Compiles for transmission to Congress an annual statement of the receipts, disbursements, and unexpended balances under each appropriation account;

(g) Makes miscellaneous statistical reports as requested by Congress or by the Secretary of the Treasury;

(h) Carries on the correspondence and miscellaneous work incident to its activities.

4. Division of Deposits

The Division of Deposits is charged with the administration of matters pertaining to designation of government depositaries and the deposit of government funds in the Federal Reserve Banks, national banks, special depositaries under the Liberty loan acts, foreign depositaries, Federal Land Banks, and the Philippine Treasury. It supervises all depositaries and obtains proper security for all government deposits. It issues directions to all public officers as to the deposit of public moneys collected by them and is charged generally with the administration of all matters pertaining to the foregoing.

5. Section of Statistics

This section makes investigations on questions of taxation, banking, general business conditions, tax-exempt securities, currency, the precious metals, and other general financial subjects as they arise. It also prepares correspondence and reports for the Secretary and the Undersecretary, dealing with the above and allied subjects. Under the direction of the Undersecretary it supervises the assembling of and assists in editing the annual report of the Secretary of the Treasury and drafts some of the articles in the report. During the sessions of Congress a digest of bills of interest to the Treasury is prepared and distributed to the various divisions and bureaus, so that each office may keep in touch with the progress of any legislation in which it may be especially interested.. The section is under the supervision of the Undersecretary.

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(10) Authority to Prosecute Claims; Delivery of Checks, Drafts, and Warrants. (a) A power of attorney from the principal in proper form may be required of attorneys or agents by heads of bureaus, offices, and divisions, in any case. In the prosecution of claims involving payments to be made by the United States, proper powers of attorney shall always be filed before an attorney or agent is recognized. No power of attorney shall be recognized which is filed after settlement made by the accounting officers, even though the settlement certificate may not yet have issued, unless such power of attorney recites that the principal is fully cognizant of such settlement and of the balance found due.

(b) In all cases originally filed in the Treasury Department and audited and allowed by the accounting officers, payable from appropriations thereafter to be made by Congress, the drafts, warrants or checks issued for the proceeds of such claims shall be made to the order of the claimant, and may be delivered to the attorney or agent legally authorized to prosecute the same, upon his filing in the department, after the allowance of the claim, the ascertainment of the amount due, and its submission to Congress for an appropriation, written authority executed in proper legal form for delivery of such draft, warrant, or check. The authority so filed shall describe the claim by the number of certificate of settlement, the amount allowed, the title of appropriation from which to be paid, the date when submitted to Congress, and the number of the executive document in which it is contained. Drafts, warrants, or checks issued for the proceeds of other like cases audited and allowed by the accounting officers but which are to be paid from appropriations available at the time of allowance shall also be made to the order of the claimant and may be delivered to the attorney or agent filing written authority, executed in proper legal form, to receive them. The Secretary of the Treasury reserves the right, however, in any case to send any draft, warrant, or check to the claimant direct. (See also paragraph 11 hereof.)

(c) Drafts, warrants, or checks issued in payment of amounts allowed by Congress in favor of corporations and individuals and appropriated for in private or special acts, and for the payment of all other claims presented directly to Congress and prosecuted before its committees, shall be made to the order of claimants and delivered to them in person or mailed to their actual post office addresses.

(d) Drafts, warrants, or checks issued in payment of judgments rendered by the Court of Claims, United States courts, or other courts shall be made to the order of the judgment creditor and delivered to or sent in care of the attorney certified by the court to be the attorney of record upon his filing in the Department written authority, executed in proper legal form, after the date of the rendition of the judgment, for such disposition of such draft, warrant, or check.

(e) When judgments of the Court of Claims, United States courts, or other courts are paid by the United States, a notice of such payment, giving number, class, and date of the draft, warrant or check, and amount paid, will be sent by the Treasury Department to the clerk of the court in which the judgment was entered in order that payment may be entered on the docket of the court.

(11) Substitution of Attorneys or Agents and Revocation of Authority.—(a) Substitution of attorneys or agents may be effected only on the written consent

of the attorney or agent of record, his principal, and the attorney or agent whom it is desired to substitute, and in all cases only with the assent of the head of the bureau, office, or division concerned; provided that where the power of attorney under which an attorney or agent of record is acting expressly confers the power of substitution, such attorney or agent, if in good standing before the Department, may, by a duly executed instrument, substitute another in his stead, such other, however, to be recognized as the attorney or agent only with the assent of the head of the bureau, office, or division concerned.

(b) If a firm dissolve, or those associated as attorneys or agents by virtue of a power of attorney contest the right of either to receive a draft, warrant or check, the principal only shall thereafter be recognized, unless the members or survivors of such firm, or the associates in such power of attorney, file a proper agreement showing which of such members, survivors or associates may continue to prosecute the matter and may receive a draft, warrant or check; and in no case shall a final settlement of the matter or action toward the transmission of a draft, warrant or check to the principal be delayed more than sixty days by reason of the failure to file such agreement.

(c) The revocation by a principal or his legal representatives of authority to prosecute a matter will not be effective, so far as the Treasury Department is concerned, without the assent of the head of the bureau, office or division before which the matter is pending. Where a matter has been suspended pending the furnishing of evidence for which a call' has been made on an attorney or agent, failure to take action thereon within three months from the date of suspension may be deemed by the administrative officer before whom the case is pending cause for revocation of the authority of such attorney or agent without further notice to him.

(d) In the settlement of claims of officers, soldiers, sailors and marines, or their representatives, and all other like claims for pay and allowances within the jurisdiction of the General Accounting Office, the draft, warrant or check for the full amount found due shall be delivered to the payee in person or sent to his bona fide post office address (residence or place of business) in accordance with the provisions of the Act of June 6, 1900 (31 Stat. 637 [Comp. St. § 453]). (12) Ackowledgment of Affidavit.-A declaration, affidavit, or any paper, requiring execution or acknowledgment in connection with any claim, application for reaudit, or other matter before the Treasury Department, must be executed or acknowledged before an officer duly authorized to administer oaths for general purposes who is not interested in the prosecution of the claim or other matter to which the said declaration, affidavit, or paper pertains.

(13) Application and Effective Date of Circular.-This circular supersedes the regulations promulgated by Treasury Department Circular No. 230 of February 15, 1921, as heretofore amended and supplemented, relating to the recognition of attorneys, agents, and others. The regulations contained in this circular shall apply to attorneys, agents, and others representing claimants and others before the Treasury Department in the city of Washington or elsewhere, with the exception as to customhouse brokers set forth in paragraph 3, and shall be effective from and after the 15th day of August, 1923. This circular shall apply to all unsettled matters then pending in this department, or which may hereafter