cents a day, to officers and civilian employees by the Navy Department; to "waiters," with a 45 cent a day limit, but not to bell boys, by the Department of Justice; and in the case of several bureaus, an example of which is the Bureau of Manufactures, "the customary scale of fees" where travel is in foreign countries.

The Department of Agriculture alone mentions the item of medicines, and it allows such to nonstatutory employees only, and then only when authorized by the Secretary.

The Navy Department has a system of meal requests analogous to transportation requests.

What has just been said does not apply to those departments having the per diem allowance in lieu of subsistence. They are not burdened with investigations of the propriety of subsistence expenses, but pay the per diem allowances in lieu of subsistence the same as the salary and leave, the employee to take care of himself as he pleases. After some hesitation the Comptroller of the Treasury has finally decided that sleeping-car expenses are not to be included in a per diem in lieu of subsistence, but are to be included in transportation expenses. (5 Comp. Dec., 508.)

The advantage of mileage allowances, which include subsistence as well as transportation, is to be found in the small amount of clerical labor required to keep account of and to audit travel expenses. In so far, however, as concerns the item of transportation this advantage is offset by the encouragement which such mileage allowance. gives to unnecessary travel and to the development in the minds of those persons to whom mileage is allowed of the idea that the mileage allowance is an official perquisite.

All the advantages attached to the mileage allowance are present in the case of a reasonable per diem allowance in lieu of subsistence, and at the same time are unaccompanied by the disadvantage to which allusion has been made. Furthermore, a reasonable per diem. in lieu of subsistence is in most cases calculated to promote economy on the part of the Government in its travel expenditures, since the individual to whom it is granted knows he must keep within the allowance or pay for any extras out of his own pocket.

The only case in which a per diem in lieu of subsistence reasonable in amount is susceptible of abuse is where it is allowed to persons who have changed their residence and are not actually traveling, on the theory that such change has not taken place, and that the travel continues. Under these conditions it may become a disguised form of compensation. Such an abuse may, however, easily be guarded against by providing that the per diem shall not be allowed beyond a certain period to one who has made no change in the place of his actual residence. Provisions of this character are now to be found in the appropriation acts for the Post Office Department.

The commission is therefore of the opinion that the per diem allowance in lieu of the subsistence should be adopted as the universal method of defraying that portion of travel expense not included in transportation, and that it should be defined with such particularity as both clearly to differentiate it from transportation expenses, and to indicate with certainty what items are included within it.

The commission has received from one of the departments the suggestion that a very large saving could be made in the amounts paid

to hotels for lodgings and meals by arranging for special discounts or special rates for officers and employees of the Government traveling on official business. It is stated that many hotels in all parts of the country make special rates for classes of persons visiting such hotels frequently, and that probably similar arrangements might be made for the large number of Government employees regularly traveling in all parts of the country. The commission believes the question should be investigated, and recommends that the President direct an inquiry to be made, through the general supply committee, or other proper agency, and that a report be submitted to the President.

VERIFICATION.

All accounts for actual expenses of travel, except those of the Isthmian Canal Commission and those paid from postal revenues, must be verified under oath before they may be allowed, under the decisions of the Comptroller of the Treasury. The comptroller bases his last decisions with regard to this matter upon Treasury Circular No. 52 of 1907, issued in pursuance of the law of July 31, 1894, which circular provides for such verification. for such verification. (15 Comp. Dec., 323; 14

ibid., 13.)

The law of 1894 provides that "the Comptroller of the Treasury shall, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, prescribe the forms of keeping and rendering all public accounts, except those relating to the postal revenues and expenditures therefrom."

Apart, however, from this provision of law, and from the power which any accounting officer must have to determine what evidence will satisfy him as to the correctness of an account, there is no general provision of law requiring an expense account to be verified. Furthermore, beyond satisfying the demands of accounting officers for competent and satisfactory evidence of the correctness of the accounts which they are called upon to examine, the verification of the expense accounts of Government officers where such verification is not required by some statutory provision has no legal effect.

Section 125 of the Act of March 4, 1909 (35 Stat., 1111), is as follows:

Whoever, having taken an oath before a competent tribunal, officer, or person, in any case in which a law of the United States authorizes an oath to be administered, that he will testify, declare, depose, or certify truly, or that any written testimony, declaration, deposition, or certificate by him subscribed, is true, shall willfully and contrary to such oath state or subscribe any material matter which he does not believe to be true, is guilty of perjury, and shall be fined not more than two thousand dollars and imprisoned not more than five years.

The affidavit required by the Comptroller of the Treasury to be attached to expense accounts is in most cases not one required by law, and if an employee swears falsely to his accounts he can not be convicted of perjury, but he may be reached under the act of March 4, 1911 (36 Stat., 1355), for falsifying his accounts.

On the theory that no provision of law required the verification of expense accounts generally, the Comptroller of the Treasury has held, as has been said, that if the Isthmian Canal Commission "does not require affidavits to vouchers for traveling expenses such affidavits will not be required by the accounting officers of the Treasury." (11 Comp. Dec., 812.)

The Secretary of the Treasury on April 30, 1908, also held that the affidavit might be omitted from reimbursement accounts submitted by employees of the Geological Survey, under authority contained in the act of June 30, 1906 (34 Stat., 727), and from the reimbursement accounts of school teachers in Alaska in the employ of the Bureau of Education, under authority of the act of March 21, 1906 (34 Stat., 824), the former of which is as follows:

And the Secretary of the Interior is further authorized, in his discretion, under such regulations as he may prescribe, to reimburse the scientific and other employees for expenses incurred by them in the discharge of their duties in the field and paid from their personal funds.

While the latter provides

That the Secretary of the Interior be, and he is hereby, authorized to permit teachers and other employees of the United States Bureau of Education employed in Alaska to make assignments of their pay, under such regulations as he may prescribe, during such time as they may be in the employ of the Bureau of Education in Alaska, and the Secretary of the Interior is further authorized, in his discretion, under such regulations as he may prescribe, to reimburse school-teachers in Alaska for expenses incurred by them in the discharge of their duties and paid from their personal funds.

In two comparatively recent decisions it has been held that the cost of verifying travel expense accounts, even when the verification is required by law, is to be assumed by the Government and not by the employee verifying the account. (12 Comp. Dec., 285; 16 ibid., 766.)

The commission is informed that it costs the Government between $5,000 and $10,000 a year for affidavits made to expense accounts by employees of the Interior Department and its bureaus, and there have been instances where the affidavit has cost more than the accountnotably in one instance—the account was $0.60 and the affidavit cost $1, that being the amount allowed by the jurisdiction where the affidavit was administered. It has also been estimated by the Treasury Department that these affidavits throughout the Government cost about $60,000 per annum. Where the affidavit is not required by law it is of no benefit, as a person who will falsify his accounts will do so as readily where he has to make an affidavit not required by law, and therefore is not guilty of perjury, as where the accounts are passed on a certificate of honor.

With the idea of discouraging unnecessary travel by Government officers and employees, and because of its belief that both economy and efficiency will result from a greater uniformity of travel regulations, the commission has recommended certain changes in existing law and drafted regulations which, if adopted, it is hoped will secure greater uniformity than exists at present. These recommendations are set forth on pages 1 to 4 of this report. Respectfully submitted.

37542°-H. Doc. 670, 62-2-31

F. A. CLEVELAND,

Chairman.

W. F. WILLOUGHBY.
W. W. WARWICK.
FRANK J. GOODNOW.
HARVEY S. CHASE.
M. O. CHANCE,

Secretary.

EXHIBIT No. 1 E.

COMPILATION OF ACTS OF CONGRESS RELATING TO MILEAGE ALLOWANCES AND PER DIEM ALLOWANCES IN LIEU OF SUBSISTENCE.

I. Mileage allowance.

1. War Department. The act of June 12, 1906 (34 Stat., 246, 247), provides for the payment of mileage to officers of the Army when traveling under competent orders, without troops, at the rate of 7 cents per mile and no more, distance to be computed in accordance with mileage tables prepared by the Paymaster General of the Army under the direction of the Secretary of War, with deductions for travel over land-grant or bond-aided railroads, or when transportation is furnished in kind at the rate of 3 cents per mile. For sea travel actual expenses only are allowed. Also by act of May 11, 1908 (35 Stat., 114), actual expenses only, limited to $4.50 per day, of officers traveling in Alaska are allowed.

The act of February 27, 1893 (27 Stat., 480), provides:

That hereafter the maximum sum to be allowed paymasters' clerks and the expert accountant of the Inspector General's Department when traveling on duty shall be four cents per mile, and, in addition thereto, when transportation can not be furnished by the Quartermaster's Department the cost of same actually paid by them, exclusive of sleeping or parlor car fare and transfers.

The Army act of March 3, 1911 (36 Stat., 1044), provides as follows:

Hereafter the pay and allowances of Army paymasters' clerks shall be the same as provided for Navy paymasters' clerks on shore duty.

One of the allowances of a Navy paymaster's clerk is mileage when traveling under orders. (See 6 Comp. Dec., 45.) The Navy paymaster's clerk is an officer, and as such is entitled to mileage at the rate of 8 cents per mile, under act of March 3, 1901 (31 Stat., 1029).

Officers of the Army serving under the Bureau of Lighthouses of the Department of Commerce and Labor, as Commissioner of the District of Columbia or under the District government, or assigned temporarily under any department or establishment receive the ordinary mileage for travel under order of the department or establishment.

An act of August 18, 1894 (28 Stat., 412), provides mileage at the rate of 7 cents a mile in lieu of all other expenses for every officer of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers not a member of the Board of Managers, traveling under orders on business for the home.

2. Navy Department.-The act of June 30, 1876 (19 Stat., 65), provides that so much of the act of June 16, 1874, as provided that only actual traveling expenses should be allowed to any person holding employment or appointment under the United States while so engaged on public business as is applicable to officers of the Navy so engaged, is hereby repealed and the sum of 8 cents per mile shall be allowed such officers while so engaged in lieu of their actual expenses. The act of August 5, 1882 (22 Stat., 286), provides:

Mileage to officers while traveling under orders in the United States and for actual personal expenses of officers while traveling abroad under orders; and officers of the Navy traveling abroad under orders hereafter issued shall travel by the most direct

route, the occasion and necessity for such order to be certified by the officer issuing the same; and shall receive, in lieu of the mileage now allowed by law, only their actual and reasonable expenses, certified under their own signatures and approved by the Secretary of the Navy.

Section 13 of the act of March 3, 1889 (30 Stat., 1007), provides: Commissioned officers of the line of the Navy and of the Medical and Pay Corps shall receive the same pay and allowances except forage as are or may be provided by or in pursuance of law for the officers of corresponding rank in the Army: Provided, That such officers when on shore shall receive the allowances, but fifteen per centum less pay than when on sea duty; Provided further, That when naval officers are detailed to shore duty beyond the seas they shall receive the same pay and allowances as are or may be provided by or in pursuance of law for officers of the Army detailed for duty in similar places.

The act of June 7, 1900 (31 Stat., 685), provides:

That in lieu of traveling expenses and all allowances whatsoever connected therewith, including transportation of baggage, officers of the Navy traveling from point to point within the United States shall hereafter receive mileage at the rate of eight cents per mile, distance to be computed by the shortest usually traveled route; but in cases where orders are given for travel to be performed repeatedly between two or more places in the same vicinity, the Secretary of the Navy may, in his discretion, direct that actual and necessary expenses only be allowed. Actual expenses only shall be paid for travel under orders outside the limits of the United States of North America.

The act of June 10, 1896 (29 Stat., 376), provides:

The officers of the Marine Corps traveling under orders without troops shall be allowed the same mileage as is now allowed officers of the Navy traveling without troops.

Officers of the Navy serving under the Bureau of Lighthouses of the Department of Commerce and Labor, or assigned temporarily under any other department or establishment, receive the ordinary mileage.

The act of June 29, 1906 (34 Stat., 555), provides:

For the transportation of enlisted men and apprentice seamen at home and abroad, with subsistence and transfers en route, or cash in lieu thereof, transportation to their homes, if residents of the United States, of enlisted men and apprentice seamen discharged on medical survey, with subsistence and transfers en route, or cash in lieu thereof; transportation of sick or insane enlisted men and apprentice seamen to hospitals, with subsistence and transfers en route, or cash in lieu thereof * * * Provided, That hereafter enlisted men, discharged on account of expiration of enlistment, shall receive in lieu of transportation and subsistence travel allowance of four cents per mile from the place of discharge to the place of enlistment for travel in the United States.

The travel pay of enlisted men of the Marine Corps is governed by the law of the Army, under section 1612 of the Revised Statutes, which reads as follows:

The officers of the Marine Corps shall be entitled to receive the same pay and allowances, and the enlisted men shall be entitled to receive the same pay and bounty for reenlistment, as are or may be provided by or in pursuance of law for officers or enlisted men of like grades in the Infantry of the Army.

The act of March 2, 1901 (31 Stat., 902), provides:

Provided, also, and an enlisted man when discharged from the service, except by way of punishment for an offense, shall receive four cents per mile from the place of his discharge to the place of his enlistment, enrollment, or original muster into service Provided further, That for sea travel on discharge actual expenses only shall be paid to officers and transportation and subsistence only shall be furnished to enlisted men.