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REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE SECRETARY.

FISCAL YEAR ENDING DECEMBER 31, 1916.

MANILA, February 21, 1917. SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the executive bureau for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1916:

ORGANIZATION.

Under the provisions of section 600 of the Administrative Code, the staff of officers of the executive bureau shall consist of one chief and four assistant chiefs to be known, respectively, as the executive secretary, the secretary to the Governor General, the second assistant executive secretary, the third assistant executive secretary, and the fourth assistant executive secretary. Upon the resignation of Judge Ignacio Villamor to accept the position of president of the University of the Philippines; Mr. S. Ferguson, then secretary to the Governor General, assumed the office of executive secretary and continued in that position until his appointment as vice president of the Philippine National Bank on February 20, 1916. Mr. H. L. Hershey, formerly director of civil service, succeeded him as secretary to the Governor General, and, as such, and in accordance with the provisions of Act No. 2291, became the acting executive secretary, holding that position until April 7, 1916, when the undersigned assumed the office of executive secretary. Mr. Manuel de Yriarte was second assistant executive secretary up to April 1, 1916, when the division of archives, patents, copyrights, and trade-marks was segregated from this bureau and made a part of the Philippine Library and Museum. Since that date the position remained vacant until the appointment thereto by promotion of the fourth assistant executive secretary, Mr. Catalino Lavadia, on September 21, 1916, whereupon the position of fourth assistant executive secretary was abolished by operation of the appropriation act for the year 1916, or Act No. 2540. Mr. E. A. McCreary served as acting third assistant executive secretary from January 1 to August 11, 1916, when he was appointed permanently. Mr. McCreary was transferred to the Philippine National Bank on August 31, 1916, and the position of third assistant executive secretary remained vacant until September 1, 1916, when Mr. Fred N. Berry was appointed thereto. From September 21, 1916, the date of appointment of Mr. Lavadia as second assistant executive secretary, the officers of the executive bureau consisted of the executive secretary, the secretary to the Governor General, the second assistant executive secretary, and the third assistant executive secretary. This organization remained unchanged to and including December 31, 1916.

FUNCTIONS.

It is

A simple reading of the functions of the bureau as outlined in section 601 of the Administrative Code is likely to produce a wrong impression as to the amount and kind of work the executive bureau has to perform. Even if one takes into consideration the fact that the executive bureau is in many ways the office of the Governor General and is therefore called upon to do work pertaining to the chief executive, he does not begin to comprehend the varied assortment of matters that come to the executive bureau for determination. only after understanding the full meaning of that part of said section 601 reading, "Through the executive bureau shall be exercised the supervision and control vested in the Governor General over the government of Provinces, chartered cities, municipalities, and other local political divisions," does one begin to realize that the executive bureau, in reality, is the head office of the provincial, municipal, city, and township governments. From this provision the executive bureau derives its power of intervention, not to obstruct but to guide the local governments, in addition to the specific powers vested in that bureau in different statutes having application to the Provinces, cities, and municipalities, such as the provincial law, the municipal law, the charter of the city of Manila, the charter of the city of Baguio, the election law, and the assessment law.

Aside from the duties expressly imposed on the bureau by law, it serves as the intermediary between the central offices of the government and the Governor General in many cases; between the central offices and offices in Washington; and between the central offices and the provincial, municipal, and other local governments.

DISTRIBUTION OF WORK.

For the purpose of securing efficiency in the operation of the executive bureau, the work devolving upon it has been distributed among the executive secretary, who exercises general supervision and outlines and determines the policy to be pursued by the office; the secretary to the Governor General, who, in general terms, has charge of the work pertaining to the chief executive rather than to the executive secretary; the second assistant executive secretary, who supervises the general revision of real property assessments now in progress in all the regular Provinces and in the municipality of Tagudin in the Mountain Province, and has charge of other matters, especially financial, pertaining to the provincial and municipal governments; and the third aassistant executive secretary, who attends to applications received from Provinces and municipalities for loans from insular trust funds, for cadastral survey of municipalities, and supervises the investment of the loans granted and all public improvements undertaken in the Provinces and municipalities with loan funds. Although there is no sharp line of division between the functions of the assistants, the division of work has been so well observed that there was never any duplication of the work supervised by any one assistant. The executive secretary and his assistants form the directorate of the bureau, which is further divided into divisions consisting mainly of the chief clerk's office, the translating division, the provincial division, the miscellaneous division, and the

records division. The translating division and the records division render service, not only for the executive bureau and the office of the Governor General but also for the other departments, bureaus, and offices of tle government, in the case of the former, and for the departments, in the case of the latter. In general terms, it may be said that to the office of the chief clerk pertains most of the work of the executive bureau having relation with the offices of the government in Manila, with the Bureau of Insular Affairs in Washington and the consular representatives here and abroad; upon the translating division falls the duty of furnishing translations into English or Spanish, or into the native dialects, of such laws, orders, regulations, and other important papers, documents, and communications, not only of the executive bureau and of the Governor General's office but also of the other branches of the government; to the provincial division is assigned all the work having relation, either immediate or remote, to finances, taxation, and special appropriations of Provinces, the city of Baguio, municipalities, and townships; to the miscellaneous division belong all matters of legal nature and matters related to the political administration of the Provinces and municipalities; while the records division takes care of the correspondence of the executive bureau, of the Governor General's office, and of the different departments. The greater bulk of the preliminary work of the bureau falls upon the different divisions.

APPROPRIATIONS AND EXPENDITURES.

The total appropriation for the executive bureau for the year 1916 was 295,096, as compared with P364,618.40 for the year 1915, or a decrease for 1916 of P69,522.40. Of the sum of P295,096 appropriated for the executive bureau for 1916, P22,484.61 represented the appropriation for the division of archives, patents, copyrights, and trade-marks, and this was transferred to the Philippine Library and Museum upon the consolidation of said division with that bureau. The appropriation available, therefore, for the executive bureau, exclusive of that pertaining to the division of archives, patents, copyrights, and trade-marks, was P272,611.39. The amount disbursed for salaries of officers and employees for the year 1916 was P173,241.16, as against P196,258.63 for the year 1915, a difference in favor of 1916 of P23,017.47. The expenditure for wages for 1916 was P14,029.52, as compared with P14,497.58 for 1915, a difference in favor of 1916 of P468.06. The traveling expenses of personnel amounted to P5,605.97 for 1916, as against P8,240.76 for 1915, a difference in favor of 1916 of P2,634.79. The expenditure for postal, telegraph, telephone, and cable service amounted to P9,984.72 for 1916, as against 7,546.51 for 1915, an increase for 1916 of P2,438.21. Supplies and materials consumed in 1916 were valued at P7,339.14, as against P9,545.49 for 1915, a difference in favor of 1916 of P2,206.35. It will be noted that the expenditures for 1916 were considerably less than those for 1915.

FIXED ASSETS.

The values of fixed assets given in the last annual report pertaining to the executive, the Philippine Commission, and the executive bu

reau were P60,701.74, P20,978.10, and P107,044.82, respectively. At the close of the year 1916 there were furniture, books, and other equipment valued at P178,365.97-P63,605.50 belonging to the executive, P21,872.92 to the Philippine Commission, and P92,887.55 to the executive bureau. It will be noted that the balance on December 31, 1916, of fixed assets of the executive bureau was P14,000 less than the balance for the preceding year. Eight thousand six hundred pesos of the decrease is accounted for by the transfer of furniture to the Philippine Library and Museum, consequent upon the consolidation with that bureau of the division of archives, patents, copyrights, and trade-marks, in accordance with Act No. 2572 and executive order No. 22, series of 1916.

The following statement shows in detail the transactions of the year:

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On January 1, 1916, there was a balance on hand of supplies, exclusive of postage stamps, valued at P2,770.83. Purchases made during the year amounted to P6,953.94, making a total of P9,724.77. Supplies issued and sold amounted to P7,416.45, leaving a balance on December 31, 1916, of P2,308.32, of which P1,004.41 was transferred to the executive. At the beginning of the year there were on hand postage stamps to the value of P1,141.86. Stamps to the value of P8,200 were purchased during the year, while the number used represented the sum of P8,468.58, thus leaving a balance at the end of the year of P873.28, P430 of which pertained to the executive and P443.28 to the executive bureau.

COLLECTIONS.

The collections made in 1916 for the executive, the Philippine commission, and the executive bureau were as follows:

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Miscellaneous receipts..

Amount refunded by the Province of Rizal out of P50,000

set aside by Act No. 2494..

Sundry special funds..

3, 434.00

1, 243. 00
146. 50
100. 50

23, 417.50
4, 018. 35
5, 110. 78

2, 774. 74
338.92
191.84

1,000.00

1, 863. 13

24, 350.00

86, 971.94 110.48

89, 443. 06

TRANSPORTATION.

During the year, transportation for 128 adults, 14 children, 9 servants and nurses, a total of 151, was secured on interisland army transports from Manila to the southern islands and return; and transportation for 54 adults, 3 children, and 1 servant, a total of 58, from Manila to Japanese and Chinese ports and return. These give a grand total of 209 passages secured for civilians on army transports. During the same period, transportation for 260 adults, 55 children, 1 servant, 34 pardoned prisoners, 87 adult indigents, and 3 children, a total of 440, was secured on trans-Pacific army transports from Manila to San Francisco; while 138 adults, 71 children, 2 servants and nurses, 3 adult indigents, and 2 children, a total of 216, were given passage from Manila to Honolulu; 33 adults, 3 children, a total of 36, from Manila to Nagasaki; 3 adults, 3 children, and 4 indigents, a total of 10, were from Nagasaki to San Francisco; and 8 adults from Manila to Newport News, Va. These bring the grand total to 710 passages secured on trans-Pacific army transports. The total number of transportations on commercial liners to the United States and foreign countries issued during the year at the expense of the government was 24.

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