16 THE CUB A REVIEW 



total disbursements by the Treasury by July 12, 1923, having amounted to $2,806,446.3^ 

 for Public Works and $1,253,494.31 for other departments. 



Rejections — Payment of Balance of Approved Claims 



It is, of course, impossible at the present time to make an estimate of the value of 

 the claims which will be rejected during the remainder of the life of the Commission for 

 the Examination and Audit of the Public Debt. The amount cannot exceed $36,923,- 

 568.91, as will be seen from the foregoing, unless rejected claims are reconsidered and 

 approved, and, as stated above, is expected to exceed the appropriation of about 

 $17,000,000. Those wiiose claims have been approved naturally inquire as to what pro- 

 vision will be made to pay the balances left after the above-described percentage pay- 

 ments. One question which is sometimes heard can, however, be answered fairly 

 definitely. There is no way of applying the 1922-23 Treasury surplus, which is now 

 expected to be in excess of $10,000,000, to the payment of the balances of the approved 

 claims, for the $50,000,000 loan statute expressly directs the employment of the surplus 

 in the purchase for retirement of bonds of the Cuban public debt. By congressional 

 action it would be possible for funds to be appropriated during the present fiscal year, 

 but no definite proposals in this direction seem to have been made as yet. 



The law creating the Commission for the Examination of the Public Debt expressly 

 directed the commission to render its decisions within at most, 45 days after the presenta- 

 tion of the claims to the commission. Thus all of the decisions should have been handed 

 down before April 30, 1923. By decree this period was extended to June 29. However, 

 no one seems to entertain any doubt that decisions rendered after June 29 have the same 

 legal effect as those rendered prior to that date, the above-mentioned clause of the law 

 being considered directory rather than mandatory. 



A considerable block of claims, among the $8,227,104.66 which have been rejected, 

 are on account of damage done during the revolutionary movement of February. 1917. 

 These have been rejected on the ground of force majeure. Most of the other rejections 

 have been based on the illegality of the underlying contracts, or because of excessive 

 prices. Where the requirements of the Organic Law of the Executive Power regarding 

 the letting of contracts only by public bidding have been violated the contracts have been 

 considered illegal unless the stipulations ruling in those cases where no public bidding has 

 been held have been observed. Equitable settlements are made in such cases, if supplies 

 or material were actually delivered and accepted by the Government departments. 



The law of September 15, 1922, provided that there should be no appeal from the 

 decisions of the commission, except to the courts. Thus far there have been less than 

 20 cases of such appeal. This is considered as substantiating the generally accepted 

 opinion that the commission has been carrying forward its work in a careful, conscientious 

 manner. 



Disposition of Proceeds of the Fifty Million Dollar Loan 



Approximately $5,000,000 of the proceeds of the loan were required to pay off a 

 provisional loan made early in 1922 by a syndicate headed by J. P. Morgan & Co. The 

 sum of $3,000,000 was appropriated for the service of interior funded debt, which was 

 due and unpaid on July 1, 1922. Up to $9,000,000 was appropriated for the payment of 

 salaries, wages, pensions, etc., due on that date, but it has been found that this amount 

 will be insufficient by approximately $1,000,000. A little less than $9,000,000 was to be 

 employed to reconstitute a number of trust funds in the Treasury, which had been used 

 during the financial crisis for purposes other than those for which the funds were orig- 

 inally destined. Up to the present, disbursements out of this appropriation have aggre- 

 gated approximately $1,500,000. Of the approximate amount of $6,000,000 appropriated 

 by the loan statute for the reconstruction, repair, and continuation of public works, onl; 

 about $60,000 has actually been expended thus far. 



The actual proceeds of the $50,000,000 loan which have thus far found their wa; 

 into circulation may be recapitulated in round figures as follows: 



d 



