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SECTION I. OTHER UNAVAILABLE ITEMS REQUIRING APPROPRIATIONS FROM THE GENERAL FUNDS OF THE TREASURY

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The bill provides for an appropriation of $10,224.08, to cover the following items:

(1) The sum of $30 to clear an overdraft in the official checking account of T. A. Dillon, former State disbursing clerk, Indianapolis, Ind., which resulted when a substitute check was inadvertently issued for $32.25, instead of $2.25, the amount of the voucher.

(2) The sum of $1,728.46 to be credited to the Treasurer's account in order to adjust unavailable items resulting from (a) payment of three checks, apparently on forged endorsements, for an amount totaling $547.46, the checks having been lost in the Office of the Treasurer of the United States after payment; (b) difference of $844 between the value of a stolen package of currency and the amount recovered following apprehension of the thieves by the Secret Service; (c) payment of a check for $57 on a forged endorsement; (d) shortages totaling $57 arising in the daily accounts of two bond tellers engaged in selling War bonds; and (e) shortages totaling $223 arising in the accounts of the Chief, Savings Bond Section, in connection with bond-selling activities at the Ringling Bros. Circus, at Christmas and during War loan drives.

(3) The sum of $8,465.62 to be credited to the account of Edwin H. Dresel, superintendent, United States mint, Philadelphia, Pa., representing the value of a bag of gold the absence of which from a vault in the Philadelphia, Pa., mint was discovered in February 1937. Thorough investigation by the Secret Service at that time and subsequent inquiries have failed to disclose the manner in which this shortage occurred. The loss was sustained without negligence on the part of the superintendent, who did not personally have the combination or other independent access to the vault involved. This item includes $5,000, the face value of the coins, and $3,465.62 of increment resulting from the reduction in the weight of the gold dollar. The accounts of Edwin H. Dressel rendered to the General Accounting Office stand charged with the amount.

The Department would appreciate it if you would lay the matter before the Senate. A similar communication has been transmitted to the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

The Department has been advised by the Bureau of the Budget that there is no objection to the submission of this proposed legislation to the Congress.

Very truly yours,

HERBERT E. GASTON, Acting Secretary of the Treasury.

79TH CONGRESS 1st Session

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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

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REPORT No. 109

G. F. ALLEN, CHIEF DISBURSING OFFICER FOR THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT

FEBRUARY 13, 1945.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House and ordered to be printed

Mr. McGEHEE, from the Committee on Claims, submitted the

following

REPORT

[To accompany S. 317]

The Committee on Claims, to whom was referred the bill (S. 317) for the relief of G. F. Allen, chief disbursing officer for the Treasury Department, having considered the same, report favorably thereon without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass.

The facts will be found fully set forth in Senate Report No. 16, Seventy-ninth Congress, which is appended hereto and made a part of this report.

Your committee concur in the recommendation of the Senate.

S. Rept. No. 16, 79th Cong., 1st sess.

The Committee on Claims, to whom was referred the bill (S. 2189) for the relief of G. F. Allen, chief disbursing officer for the Treasury Department, and for other purposes, having considered the same, report favorably thereon and recommend that the bill do pass.

The purpose of the proposed legislation is:

"That, notwithstanding the provisions of the Act of February 28, 1929 (45 Stat. 1406), as amended by the Act of April 22, 1940 (54 Stat. 148), authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to employ engineers and economists for consultation purposes on important reclamation work, the Comptroller General of the United States be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to allow credit in the account of G. F. Allen, chief disbursing officer of the Treasury Department, for the sum of $1,000, base pay, and $48.30, overtime, a total of $1,048.30, paid by him to Doctor Paul S. Taylor, of Berkeley, California, as compensation in excess of $5,000, plus overtime, for personal services rendered during the period from July 1, 1943, to June 13, 1944, and to cancel any claims against the said Doctor Paul S. Taylor and the pay roll certifying officers of the Department of the Interior for the excess compensation so paid.

"SEC. 2. The Comptroller General of the United States is further authorized and directed to allow, out of the unexpended balance of the appropriation for salaries in the Office of the Secretary, Department of the Interior, for the fiscal year ending

June 30, 1944, the claim of the said Doctor Paul S. Taylor for the sum of $375, base pay, and $18.11, overtime, a total of $393.11, representing the balance due him for compensation for personal services which he rendered during the period from June 14, 1944, to June 30, 1944, as a consulting sconomist of the Department of the Interior."

This bill was introduced at the request of the Secretary of the Interior. The facts are fully set forth in the bill and in the attached letter from the Department, dated October 31, 1944. Your committee recommend favorable consideration of the bill.

Hon. HENRY A. WALLACE,

President of the Senate.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
Washington, D. C., October 31, 1944.

MY DEAR MR. VICE PRESIDENT: Enclosed is a draft of a proposed bill, entitled "A bill for the relief of G. F. Allen, chief disbursing officer of the Treasury Department, and for other purposes," which I recommend be enacted.

This legislation is proposed for the purpose of providing relief for Guy F. Allen, chief disbursing officer of the Treasury Department, and for the pay-roll certifying officer of the Department of the Interior, Floyd E. Dotson, covering certain paymnets of compensation made to Dr. Paul S. Taylor, and to compensate Dr. Taylor for personal services which he has rendered to the United States.

Under the act of February 28, 1929 (45 Stat. 1406), as amended by the act of April 22, 1940 (54 Stat. 148), the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to employ consulting engineers and economists on important reclamation work at rates of compensation not to exceed $50 per day The total of the compensation to be paid to any such expert, however, is limited by these acts to $5,000 in any fiscal year.

Dr. Paul S. Taylor, a professor of economics on the staff of the University of California since 1922, and an acknowledged expert on farm economic and labor problems in the West and Southwest, was on April 6, 1943, employed by the Division of Power of this Department, under the foregoing statutes, as a consulting economist in connection with the Central Valley project in California at a salary of $25 per day when actually employed At the time of his appointment, it was believed that Dr. Taylor's employment would not exceed a total of 30 days over a period of 3 or 4 months, and that fact was noted in the request to the Civil Service Commission for authority to make the appointment without regard to the civil-service regulations. In approving the appointment, the Civil Service Commission added the limitation that the employment of Dr. Taylor might not exceed 180 days-a calendar year-and requested that this limitation be communicated to the appointee. This was done, and a notation to the same effect was endorsed upon the fanfold appointment record of Dr. Taylor. The limitation of $5,000 per fiscal year imposed by the acts mentioned above, was, however, momentarily overlooked and no reference to it was made on the fanfold record, upon the basis of which pay-roll entries are made.

The work in connection with the Central Valley project increased in importance and complexity far beyond early expectations and Dr. Taylor was employed 25 days during the fiscal year 1943, 120 days during the period July 1 to December 31, 1943, and 120 days up to June 13, 1944. For his 240 days of services between July 1, 1943, and June 13, 1944, he was paid at the agreed rate of $25 per day, amounting to $6,000, and overtime of $288.21, a total of $6,288.21. He has not been paid at all for the 15 days' services he rendered between June 14 and June 30. I am entirely convinced that the employment of Dr. Taylor for periods requiring payments in excess of the statutory limit of $5,000 per fiscal year was purely inadvertent, and arose from the failure of the personnel clerks in the various offices through which the appointment passed to note that limitation on Dr. Taylor's fanfold record. There is no doubt that, had the notation been made, the limitation would have been observed, just as the Civil Service Commission's limitation of 180 days per calendar year has been observed. What happened, in effect, was that Dr. Taylor's compensation was fixed on a basis of not to exceed $4,500 per annum (180 days at $25 per day) or $500 less than the statutory maximum, but that in applying this basis the calendar year rather than the fiscal year was used as the measure of the time. The Government has had the benefit of Dr. Taylor's services, and the excess payments which were made are not of a character specifically prohibited by any statute from being made. Dr. Taylor rendered his services in good faith, with no knowledge of the misapplication of the H. Rept. 109

statutory limitation, and should not be made to suffer for a clerical error in the departmental records.

The appropriation made available for payment of salaries in the Division of Power was not exceeded during the fiscal year 1944, and a sufficient balance remains in it to pay Dr. Taylor for his services during the latter part of the month of June.

The enclosed legislation has been drafted in the form of relief on account of the excess payments for both G. F. Allen, the disbursing officer of the Treasury Department, and the pay-roll certifying officer of this department, Floyd E. Dotson, because, under the act of December 29, 1941 (55 Stat. 875), the certifying officers have been made equally responsible with the disbursing officers, in certain circumstances, for improper or unauthorized payments of public funds. Provision has, therefore, been made for the release of any claims on account of the excess payment against both of these officers, as well as the employee, and for the payment to Dr. Taylor of the per diem compensation which, had the statutory limitation been properly applied, he would have become entitled to receive for the services which he rendered between June 14 and June 30.

In view of the foregoing circumstances, I respectfully recommend favorable consideration by the Congress of the enclosed legislation.

The Bureau of the Budget has advised me that there is no objection to the submission of this proposed legislation to the Congress. Sincerely yours,

ABE FORTAS,

Acting Secretary of the Interior.

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