in any of the staff departments, will, in issuing checks, confine the designation of their official capacity to their rank and the particular staff department on account of which the checks are drawn. (A. R., 605.) 127. Checks for deposit of army paymasters' collections and soldiers' deposits will be dated on the last day of the month in which the collections are made or deposits received or when an account is closed. If the paymaster is unable to deposit checks on that date he will do so at the earliest practicable date. (M. P. D. 77.) 128. Should any officer make an erasure or alteration of any of his checks, however slight, he will certify to the correctness of such erasure or alteration on the upper margin of such check. (A. R., 613.) 129. The signing of a check for public money in blank is prohibited. (A. R., 641.) 130. Rubber stamps or the typewriter will not be used to insert the date, payee's name, or the amount of the check issued in payment of a public creditor, and all United States disbursing officers are instructed to use pen and ink for this purpose. (A. R., 604; G. O. 12 and 22, A. G. O., 1900.) 131. Mutilated or spoiled official checks upon the United States Treasurer or assistant treasurer will be forwarded promptly to the office to which they pertain, but mutilated or spoiled checks upon a national bank depositary will be forwarded promptly, for preservation and future reference, to the chief of bureau by whom issued, who will acknowledge the receipt of such checks. In either case a record of the dates of both cancellation and transmission will be entered on the stub. (A. R., 614.) 132. In making payments only official checks will be used. (A. R., 612.) 133. Checks outstanding for a longer period than three full fiscal years must be reported to the Secretary of the Treasury by the disbursing officer upon receipt of the statement of his disbursing account for the month of June of each year from the office or bank in which his funds are kept. (A. R., 609.) 134. Checks outstanding for a longer period than three full fiscal years, procedure necessary for payment. (A. R., 611; R. S., 308.) 135. Procedure when an original check is lost, stolen, or destroyed. (Treasury Dept. Cir. 47, 1908; A. R., 606.) Check books and unused checks. 136. Official check books are issued by the Treasurer and assistant treasurers of the United States direct to disbursing officers who have public money on deposit with them. Those on national bank depositaries are furnished by chiefs of bureaus. Rules for issue, transfer, etc., accompany each book. (A. R., 612, 613.) 137. Check books will be kept under lock and key when not in use, and the serial numbers of the unused checks will be frequently examined to see that no check in the series is missing. (G. O. 110, A. G. O., 1901; M. S. D., 104; M. P. D., 71; S. C. M., No. 7, par. 228.) 138. An officer who for the convenience of any disbursing officer detaches any blank checks and stubs from the check book on the Treasurer or any assistant treasurer in his possession will take the receipt of such disbursing officer in duplicate for such checks by serial numbers and transmit one copy of the same in the manner directed in paragraph 2, G. O. 110, A. G. O., 1901. (G. O. 110, A. G. O., 1901, par. 3.) 139. Under no circumstances will unused check books or blank checks taken from check books on the Treasurer or an assistant treasurer be kept for an unreasonable time in the possession of any disbursing officer of the War Department. (G. O. 110, A. G. O., 1901.) 140. An officer relieved from duty as a disbursing officer and having a check book on the Treasurer or an assistant treasurer in his possession will cut from the book the stubs used by him (to be filed with his retained papers), and will transfer the unused checks and stubs to his successor, taking a receipt therefor in duplicate, which shall describe the unused checks by their serial numbers, one copy of which will be transmitted by the officer relieved to the Treasurer or to the assistant treasurer by whom the check book was originally issued. Before transferring any check book the transferring officer will first examine the unused checks to see that there is no break in the serial numbers showing that checks are missing. (G. O. 110, A. G. O., 1901.) 141. Check books of paymasters will be kept in condition for inspection by an inspector-general, chief paymaster, or other authorized inspector at any moment. (M. P. D., 72.) 142. Disbursing officers will hereafter be required to use, for each capacity in which they may be serving, but one series of checks on the same depositary at the same time, and to exhaust first the lowest numbered series on hand. (G. O. 133, A. G. O., 1890.) Certificates of deposit. 143. Regulations governing. (A. R., 615-620; Cir. 9, W. D., 1906.) Proceeds of sales. 144. Regulations governing. (A. R., 621-623.) 145. That from the proceeds of sales of old material, condemned stores, supplies, or other public property of any kind, before being deposited into the Treasury, either as miscellaneous receipts on account of "proceeds of Government property" or to the credit of the appropriations to which such proceeds are by law authorized to be made, there may be paid the expenses of such sales, as approved by the accounting officers of the Treasury, so as to require only the net proceeds of such sales to be deposited into the Treasury, either as miscellaneous receipts or to the credit of such appropriations, as the case may be. (Act June 8, 1896; 29 Stat. L., 268; Cir. 27, W. D., 1906.) 146. The act of June 8, 1896 [see preceding paragraph], authorizing the payment of expenses, "as approved by the accounting officers of the Treasury," incurred in the sale of old material, etc., from the gross proceeds thereof, and the payment into the Treasury of the net proceeds only, does not require that such expenses shall be so approved before payment, but simply that an itemized account thereof shall be rendered to the accounting officers for settlement as any other item of expenditure of government funds. (III Comp., 149.) 147. Decision of the Comptroller of the Treasury in regard to disbursing officers depositing proceeds of sales with a government depositary to their official credit, pending payment of expenses of sales; retention beyond thirty days of so much thereof as may be necessary for payment of expenses of sales, etc. (Cir. 27, W. D., 1906.) 148. Of subsistence supplies are immediately available for the purchase of fresh supplies. (A. R., 621.) 149. Of surplus ice, surplus electric light and power, and proceeds from laundry work done for other branches of the Government. (Army appropriation act, Mar. 2, 1905; G. O. 40. W. D., 1905, p. 14; and subsequent annual army appropriation acts.) 150. Of manure sold at posts. (See par. 664, post.) 151. Hereafter all moneys arising from dispositions of serviceable medical and hospital supplies authorized by law and regulation shall constitute one fund on the books of the Treasury Department, which shall be available to replace medical and hospital supplies throughout the fiscal year in which the dispositions were effected and throughout the following fiscal year. (Act June 12, 1906; G. O. 115, W. D., 1906, p. 25.) 152. Fiscal year to which funds pertain which are received for subsistence supplies when payment is made in a later fiscal year than the one in which the stores were delivered. (Dec. Comp. June 19, 1906; Cir. 37, W. D., 1906.) 153. Old typewriting machines exchanged for new ones. (Cir. 1, W. D., 1906.) 154. Of useless ordnance material. (Act Mar. 3, 1875; Sup. R. S., vol. 1, p. 74.) Of serviceable ordnance and ordnance stores. (Act April 23, 1904; G. O. 76, W. D., 1904, p. 29.) 155. The transfer of public property from one bureau or department to another is not regarded as a sale. Vouchers for property so transferred will be sent through the chief of the bureau concerned to the proper accounting officer of the Treasury Department for settlement. If credit is received therefor the money may be used to replace the property transferred. (A. R., 623.) 156. Books for a post library purchased out of post-exchange funds or donated to the library are not "public property within the meaning of sec. 3618, Rev. Stats. Proceeds from a sale of them may, therefore, legally be expended in the purchase of new books. (D. J. A. G., 2283.) Appropriations. 157. Regulations governing fiscal years and accounts current. (A. R., 624-634.) Also see pars. 186-189, post. Money vouchers. 158. Preparation of, etc. (A. R., 635-658.) 159. The practice of requiring public creditors to receipt for moneys in advance of actual payment will be discontinued after September 30, 1907. No payments made after said date shall be evidenced by a receipt, except where receipts are required either by law or contract, unless such payments are made in cash, that is, currency. (Treasury Dept. Cir. No. 52, 1907, par. 1.) The giving or taking of a receipt for public money in blank or in advance of actual payment is prohibited. (A. R., 641.) 160. After September 30, 1907, no receipt for moneys paid by disbursing officers' checks shall be required or taken by disbursing officers except where receipts are required either by law or contract. Disbursing officers will note on vouchers for check payments the date, number, name of payee, and amount of the check and the name of the depositary on whom drawn. (Treasury Dept. Cir. No. 52, 1907, par. 2.) 161. A voucher for a payment made or an invoice for money transferred will have noted thereon the number, date, and amount of checks given and the depositary on which drawn. If payment or transfer is made with currency, wholly or in part, the facts will be stated and a receipt given for the currency. (A. R., 644.) See A. R., 642. 162. All vouchers for payment by disbursing officers, except those required by law to be verified by affidavit, and the expense accounts of the civilian officers, employees, and agents of the Government, which shall be verified by affidavit as heretofore, shall be certified by the claimant as correct and just, except that vouchers for personal compensation for services rendered under the personal supervision of some administrative officer and so certified by him need not be certified by the claimant, provided the voucher describes specifically the position, the rate of compensation, and the period covered. (Treasury Dept. Cir. No. 52, 1907, par. 3.) 163. Disbursing officers shall make cash payments only in cases authorized by Treasury Department Circular No. 102, dated December 7, 1906, and then in only those cases where the payment is made by the disbursing officer in person, or by his deputy, and the exchange of money and the receipt therefor is simultaneous. (Treasury Dept. Cir. No. 52, 1907, par. 5.) NOTE.-For Treasury Circular No. 102, see par. 196, post. 164. When payments are made in cash, that is, currency, they must be evidenced by a statement of such fact in the receipt and in substantially the following form (except upon pay rolls which shall embody instructions calculated to insure the receipt thereof only under the conditions laid down in the form given in this paragraph): "Received from and in cash, the sum of in person, or by his deputy, dollars and cents, in full |