FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION 95 



Aside from these legal requirements, and several others 

 having similar intent or purpose, the actual preparation of 

 the estimates rests very largely with the heads of the ex- 

 ecutive departments and the principal officers of the various 

 independent administrative units. The only exception is 

 that found in the sundry civil appropriation act of June 23, 

 1913, which provides that hereafter the head of each ex- 

 ecutive department or other Government establishment, shall 

 designate from among the officials employed therein one per- 

 son whose duty it shall be to supervise the classification and 

 compilation of all estimates of appropriations to be sub- 

 mitted by such department or establishment. 



This decentralization in the preparation and submission of 

 estimates is in accord with the expressed attitude of Con- 

 gress, which has thus far resisted all attempts to secure 

 greater centralization or executive control. 



With the exception of the proviso just noted, nothing is 

 contained in the statutes which indicates the method to be 

 pursued by heads of the departments and other officers 

 either in making up their estimates or in the consideration of 

 estimates before they are submitted. Various methods are 

 employed. Briefly stated, the usual procedure in the De- 

 partment of Agriculture is as follows : Shortly after the be- 

 ginning of the fiscal year the Secretary of Agriculture ad- 

 dresses a letter to each chief of bureau or other primary 

 subdivision, requesting that estimates for the next fiscal 

 year be prepared and submitted to his office on or before a 

 certain date. This letter also calls attention to the form 

 which the estimates must take and to any general policy or 

 policies which may have been adopted with reference to this 

 matter by the administrative head of the department. 



Upon receipt of this letter, the bureau chief causes copies 

 of it to be made and sends one copy, together with his own 

 instructions that estimates be prepared in accordance with it, 

 to each of the division heads or similar officers. These latter 

 officials, in the case of the larger divisions, pass the task on, 

 in somewhat less formal in.'iiiner, to their own subordinates. 



