QUARTERLY ACCOUNTS. Contingent expenses, United States consulates.. Accounts of clerks at consulates... Salaries, marshals for consular courts. Salaries, interpreters to consulates in China and Japan ions ... Expenses of prisons for American convicts... Form No. 90 Form No. 165 Form No. 165 Form No. 165 Form No. 165 Form No. 165 Fees and expenditures of marshals at consular courts... Form No. 137 587. To the Auditor.-The following returns and accounts are to be transmitted by the consular officers to the Auditor for the State and other Departments: QUARTERLY RETURNS. Return of seamen who have come upon the consulate otherwise than in the employment of vessels or by regular discharge therefrom Record of Treasury fees, with oath. Form No. 126 Form No. 101 or 102 Detailed list of seamen discharged, shipped, deserted, and deceased...... Detailed report of official services to American vessels and seamen, with oath.... Form No. 124 Form No. 168 Summary of consular business. Form No. 103 Certificate as to absence.. Form No. 113 Statement of official services of unsalaried officer to Form No. 167 QUARTERLY ACCOUNTS. Relief and protection of American seamen, with vouch ers Salaries, consular service, with vouchers Form No. 94 Forms Nos. 106, 108, 112, and 116 Pay for services to American vessels and seamen, with Salaries, consular clerks. Form No. 169 Form No. 165 Loss by exchange, consular service, with vouchers. Forms Nos. 92 and 93 manner shown by Forms Nos. 167, 168, and 169, explained in the following paragraph: The accounts for services will be adjusted quarterly, except those of consular agents, which will be adjusted at the close of the fiscal year. The amounts which may be found due on accounts for official services will be remitted by Treasury drafts payable to the order of the officers to whom the amounts are due. No payments can in any case be made on account of official services until the accounts have been adjusted at the Treasury Department. Consuls are therefore forbidden to draw drafts on the Treasury for pay for services to vessels and seamen. 575. Statement of official services for shipmaster (Form No. 167). This form must be issued in duplicate, one copy to be furnished to the master of the vessel for whom the services are performed and the other to be transmitted with the accounts to the Auditor for the State and other Departments. This form must contain the items of the services performed and the amount claimed therefor. It must be signed by the consular officer and certified as correct by the shipmaster. The tariff number of the official fee must appear in the column for "No. of fee," opposite each item of service, showing the authority for the charge.-23 Stat. L., 56, sec. 12. Detailed report of official services to American vessels and seamen.—This report (Form No. 168) must contain a detailed report of all the official services rendered during the quarter. It must show the dates, names of vessels, names of masters, the ports to which the vessels belong, nature of services, and amounts charged therefor. This form is to be sworn to before an officer authorized to administer oaths. Under the head of "Remarks" on this form the consular officer should explain opposite the name of each United States steamer for which the fee No. 106 of the tariff of fees is charged "for receiving and delivering ship's register and papers,” etc., the nature of the trip of the vessel, whether "running regularly by weekly or monthly trips, or otherwise," and state “the foreign port where the principal offices of the steamship company or owners are located." When a charge is made of fees Nos. 28 or 46 of the tariff of fees, the fact of the service being required by the custom-house or port authorities must be stated in the oath of the consular officer to the said form; and it must also be stated in the oath of said form that each vessel for which the fee No. 106 of the tariff of fees is charged therein is a registered vessel of the United States, and where this fee is charged at Canadian ports the consular officer must include in his oath an additional statement that a regular entry and clearance was made at the custom-house in the case of each vessel where such fee is charged.-R. S., secs. 1720, 1722, 4222. Account current for fees and services.—An account current (Form No. 169) must be furnished, on the debit side of which should be charged, in separate entries, the amount of compensation received from official fees collected and the amount claimed for official services to American vessels and seamen; and on the credit side should be entered the amount of official fees collected (Form 101) and the balance claimed to be due, closing the account. 576. Consular agents' accounts.-Consular agents will be governed by the foregoing requirements in relation to official services, and will render their quarterly reports in accordance with the prescribed forms to the principal consular officer, who will transmit the same to the Auditor for the State and other Departments. In order to secure payment to himself of the amounts due to the agents for services rendered by them, the principal consular officer must furnish receipts of the agents, showing payment by him to them of the amounts due; otherwise the Treasury drafts will be remitted payable to the order of the agents who performed the services. SALARIES OF CONSULAR CLERKS. 577. The account for the salary of a consular clerk must be rendered quarterly to the Auditor for the State and other Departments, and in the name of the consular clerk, whether he receives his salary from the fees of the consulate where he is stationed or whether he draws a draft therefor. Drafts for the salary of a consular clerk are to be drawn on the Secretary of the Treasury and in the name of the consular clerk. The account may be rendered on Form No. 165. (Paragraph 517.) DRAFTS. 578. No drafts must be drawn except by a duly authorized and qualified consular officer. Drafts and accounts must not be transmitted by a consular agent. Drafts of consular officers must not be made in foreign money, but for the equivalent value thereof in the currency of the United States. In disposing of their drafts consular officers are expected to use their best discretion to negotiate them at the most favorable rates, and must furnish with the account in each case of sale of draft a voucher, as per Form No. 92, whether any loss is sustained or not. It is necessary that they should state on the face of every draft for salary or authorized expenses the account for which it is made; and every draft for expenses authorized by special instructions should refer explicitly to the date and number of the instruction in which such authority was given. The same reference should appear in the corresponding account. (Paragraph 567) To prevent the dishonor of such bills or drafts consular officers should observe the form prescribed with a view to overcome this difficulty. (Form No. 114.) 579. Indorsements by procuration.-Bills of exchange drawn by consular officers are occasionally presented at the Department of State or the Treasury for payment by holders whose rights are derived from indorsements not made by parties to whom such bills have been duly made payable, but by other persons claiming to act for such parties by procuration, without producing the power of attorney or other authority for the transfer of the property in such bill of exchange out of its lawful owner. The accounting officers, who are required to see that no person receives money from the Treasury but by lawful title, can not recognize such indorsements unless on satisfactory proof of their sufficiency. 580. To be drawn at fifteen days' sight.-All drafts drawn by consular officers, whether on the Secretary of State or on the Secretary of the Treasury, are to be drawn at fifteen days' sight, acceptance waived, in order to give sufficient time to the accounting officers to adjust the accounts before the day of payment. Drafts for disbursements made for objects not expressly authorized by law nor by instructions must not be drawn until notice is received from the Department of State that the accounts and vouchers have been examined and approved. 581. Accounts must accompany drafts.-Consular officers' drafts will not be paid until the accounts and vouchers for which they are drawn have been received, examined, and approved. In order to secure their payment, and to prevent embarrassment and delay to holders, it is necessary that the accounts should be sent so as either to precede the arrival of, or be received at the same time with, the drafts. (Paragraph 566.) 582. Drafts to be filled out in handwriting of consular officer.— Whenever a draft is drawn by a consular officer, the blanks in the engraved forms furnished by the Department of State (Form No. 114) must be filled up by the drawer in his own handwriting; and for still further protection against forgery, 17824 C R-16 |