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TREASURY DEPARTMENT, 



Washington, June 23, 1914. 

 The honorable the SECRETARY OP AGRICULTURE, 



Washington, D. 0. 



SIR : There has been received to-day for settlement In this bureau 

 claim of the Northern Pacific Railway Co., rendered by said company 

 in the sum of $71.32, Forest Service voucher No. 08644. The first 

 two entries on the voucher carry charges for transportation of house- 

 hold goods of a Forest Service employee. The figures appearing in 

 the columns " Weight," " Gross amount," " Land-grant deduction," and 

 "Amount claimed " in these first two entries have been canceled in 

 pencil, while corrective or memorandum pencil entries have been 

 added. The total of the bill also has been crossed out and new figures 

 substituted above in ink. 



The office has frequently had occasion to call atttention to altera- 

 tions apparently made during the administrative examination affecting 

 accounts submitted by claimants. The comptroller, in several decisions, 

 has strongly criticized this practice, which he terms " spoliation " of 

 the voucher. I should be glad if steps may be taken to avoid any 

 administrative cancellation, erasure, or change of the claimant's bill 

 as rendered. 



Very respectfully, E. D. HEARNE, Auditor. 



[Extract from letter of Comptroller of the Treasury to Secretary of 

 Agriculture dated May 28, 1914.] 



I note that in suggesting certain instructions on the voucher forms 

 you propose to commit the accounting officers of the Treasury to 

 sanctioning the practice of permitting the claimant to change figures 

 or other important accounting data on the voucher, either before or 

 after certification by him, when made over his signature or initials. 

 While it is true that the accounting officers may, in the exercise of 

 their discretion and judgment, allow a claim where such changes and 

 corrections have been bona fide made, yet this is far different from 

 encouraging the practice of certifying to and approving altered vouch- 

 ers. Wherever practicable vouchers showing erasures or other altera* 

 tions when received from claimant should be returned to him for pur- 

 pose of being recast before administrative certification and approval. 

 The instructions should show that erasures or other alterations in the 

 bill are not to be permitted. Fiscal Regulation No. 30, or other de- 

 partmental regulation contrary to this view, should be modified 

 accordingly. 



