aah ae 
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION 
The following abstracts of recent decisions of the Comptroller 
“General of the United States are of general interest: 

10, A-31501, page 170: Traveling Expenses — Foreign Vessels —- 
Disbursing Officers — Liability. 
"The fact that a physician ordered to travel to Panama City 
via Habana, Cuba, for the purpose of arranging for the med- 
ical examination of air pilots, is administratively author- 
ized to and actually performs travel between Habana and Pan- 
ama City upon a foreign vessel for the purpose of making con-— 
tact with physicians of other countries en route to a meeting 
of the Pan American Medical Congress, does not entitle him to 
reimbursement at the expense of the United States for expenses 
while on shipboard nor to such transportation, in contravention 
of section 601 of the act of May 22, 1928, 45 Stat. 697. 
"§ disbursing officer, as such, is not responsible for the 
illegal use of a transportation request by another employee 
for transportation upon a foreign, instead of an American ves— 
sel, and recoupment by the United States may not be by way of 
a disallowance of credit in the disbursing officer's accounts 
for other lawful payments to such employee. A charge will be 
raised against the employee using the request. 
A-33768, page 182: Contracts — Mistake in Bid — Correction — 
Withdrawal. 
"To authorize the correction of a bid on the basis of a mis-— 
take alleged after the opening, the evidence of such mistake 
must be such as to show conclusively that a mistake was made, 
in what it consisted, and how it occurred. There should be 
presented immediately such convincing proof of the existence 
and character of the error as to leave no room for doubt that 
there was in fact a bona fide mistake in the bid to remove any 
reasonable suspicion that the claim of error was for the pur-— 
pose of claiming some undue advantage or of avoiding the con- 
sequences of an ill-advised bid. 
"The fact that the bid as to which error is alleged is less 
than the department's estimate is not necessarily controlling 
as to whether a mistake had been made such as would authorize 
the bid to be disregarded, as there is always a possibility of 
an error on the part of the department concerned in the pre- 
p2ration thereof. "A bid may be disregarded when the evidence is 
not sufficient to authorize its reformation if it is conclusively 
shown before acceptance that the bid is erroneous and that it 
would be unconscionable to hold the bidder thereto. 
