ceived the approval of the proper administrative officer. In making these purchases prior consideration is given to existing contracts which are made annually for such articles as are repeatedly required.

PURCHASES IN THE FIELD.

Field purchases are made direct, at or near the place where delivery is required. In conformity with section 3709 of the Revised Statutes, proposals are sent to dealers, and on receipt of replies the best offer is accepted, and this proposal is filed with the voucher when transmitted for payment. If it is impossible or impracticable to obtain formal proposals, adequate reasons for the purchase without advertising should be given, as in the manner indicated on the voucher form.

ADVERTISING.

Advertising is necessary before expense may be incurred to procure any article or any nonpersonal service, except when the public exigencies require the immediate delivery of the article or performance of the service; but the following provision of law (sec. 3828, Rev. Stat.) should be noted:

No advertisement, notice, or proposal for any executive department of the Government, or for any bureau thereof, or for any office therewith connected shall be published in any newspaper whatever except in pursuance of a written authority for such publication from the head of such department; and no bill for any such advertising or publication shall be paid unless there be presented with such bill a copy of such written authority.

The written authorization by the Secretary to a subordinate official directing him in general terms to place advertisements as may be required is a substantial compliance with the requirements of the above statute, but the subordinate official should, in turn, place the advertising so authorized by written orders directed to the particular newspapers selected by him as a medium for such advertising, and copy of his specific order should be attached to bills rendered by the newspaper for advertising service. (19 Comp. Dec., 628.)

Advertising may be accomplished by distributing circulars or handbills, by posting notices, by sending letters or telegrams to possible bidders, or if there is not time for any of these methods, by personal inquiry and by telephone. The method or methods to be followed should be determined by considering the importance and value of the proposed purchase or contract, the location of probable bidders, and the time that will be required to advertise and to receive. proposals.

The duration of the time of advertising is not fixed. It should be long enough to allow possible bidders to consider fully the specifications and the matter of their ability to perform the contract if it should be awarded to them.

The advertisement should contain full information on the following matters or show where such information can be procured: Specifications in detail as to the articles to be furnished or the work to be done; the place at which delivery or performance is required; the period within which proposals will be received; if bidders are invited to be present, the time when the bids will be opened and considered; and the address to which proposals should be sent.

VOUCHERS FOR PURCHASES.

The vouchers and the subvouchers for purchases and services other than personal (Forms 6-51, 6-52, and 6-53) are used for purchases and miscellaneous expenditures, including rent, storage, freight, expressage, services by the day or job on contract work, and telegraph or telephone charges. When any of the above obligations are settled by cash payments, subvouchers should be taken and the returns made on the traveling and miscellaneous expense voucher. (See, also, sec. 32, p. 47.)

Each item or purchase must show the date of purchase, the number of units, the kind of unit, and the price or rate per unit, as well as the total cost. If a piece of work is done as a job, statement to that effect is sufficient.

The purchase or hire of property belonging to employees is prohibited; but a man may be hired as an employee in connection with his horses, wagons, or other property, the whole being covered under one agreement and accounted for by a single voucher. When the material hired is merely accessory to the service of the employee, as when an artisan is hired with his tools, or a surveyor with his instruments, a service voucher should be used. When the services of the person are accessory to the use of the material, as when a driver accompanies a hired team, the voucher is for hire of property, with mention of the personal service and the person rendering it, and the voucher for purchases and services other than personal should be used.

Whenever the amount of a payment depends on a period of time, as for subsistence or forage by the day, storage, rent of buildings or material, etc., the limiting dates must be included in the voucher. Full descriptions, including age, height, weight, color, sex, brands, etc., must accompany vouchers for the purchase of animals.

RENTALS.

BUILDINGS, OFFICES, ETC.

No building or office shall be rented or repaired in Washington, D. C., unless specific appropriation for the payment of the rent or repair thereof shall have been made by Congress.

No building, office, or land outside of Washington, D. C., for which the annual rental exceeds $1,000 shall be rented or leased for Government use unless the agreement therefor be in writing and approved by the Secretary of the Interior. All such leases will be considered formal instruments.

Any building, office, or land outside of the District of Columbia, the annual rental of which does not exceed $1,000 may be rented or leased by making therefor an informal written agreement in accordance with the procedure outlined under "Contracts" (p. 62).

The original copy and two carbon copies of every lease must be transmitted to the director, either with the voucher making payment thereunder or before such voucher is presented.

STORAGE, PASTURAGE, ETC.

Storage and pasturage accounts for fractional parts of months, if the rate charged is a monthly one, should be computed on the basis of the actual number of days in such months, unless otherwise specified in the agreement.

TELEPHONE SERVICE.

When authorized, regular telephone service should be provided for by the execution of contract form 6-774 at rates not to exceed the regular rates, the original copy to accompany the first voucher presented for payment under the contract.

WATER, GAS, ELECTRICITY, AND HEAT.

When water, gas, electricity, and heat are not furnished directly by the Government, and are not supplied as a part of the equipment of a rented building, a written agreement for this service must be made. If the total annual expenses to be incurred will not exceed $1,000, a contract may be entered into by the director or the assistant director, in behalf of the United States, using the bureau's shortform contract (Form 6-77) executed in quintuplicate in accordance with the procedure outlined on page 62, following.

CONTRACTS.

The mode of preparing contracts involving large expenditures is prescribed in the following paragraph (Rev. Stat., sec. 3744):

It shall be the duty of the Secretary of War, of the Secretary of the Navy, and of the Secretary of the Interior to cause and require every contract made by them severally on behalf of the Government, or by their officers under them appointed to make such contracts, to be reduced to writing and signed by the contracting parties with their names at the end thereof; a copy of which shall be filed by the officer making and signing the contract in the returns office of

the Department of the Interior, as soon after the contract is made as possible, and within 30 days, together with all bids, offers, and proposals to him made by persons to obtain the same, and with a copy of any advertisement he may have had published inviting bids, offers, or proposals for the same. All the copies and papers in relation to each contract shall be attached together by a ribbon and seal and marked by numbers in regular order, according to the number of papers composing the whole return.

Important formal contracts on behalf of the bureau must not be made without specific authority and instructions from the Secretary of the Interior, obtained through the director, and no contract involving a payment from public funds may be made in advance of an appropriation therefor by Congress.

With the approval of the director, less formal agreements having the force of contracts and involving only minor expenditures may be entered into by bureau officers whenever the interests of the service are served thereby. Examples of agreements of this type are those providing for office rent, pasturage, storage of public property, livery, telephone, water, gas, electricity, ice, and hauling. The form used for these agreements is 6-774.

Payment in advance of rendition of service is prohibited by statute. and employees are cautioned against entering into any contract or agreement that requires such payment. Contracts for the performance of a service involving a definite period of time can not legally be made to extend beyond the duration of the appropriation that makes provision for expenses of the period during which such contracts are executed.

If a contract for the delivery of property to the Government is not completed in the fiscal year in which it is made, but is completed in the next fiscal year, payment must be made from the appropriation for the fiscal year in which such contract was made.

SALES.

Sales of public property are not permissible except where the property has become unfit for use.

UNSERVICEABLE PROPERTY.

General authority is granted each year by the director for the disposal at auction of worn-out or useless property, the sales to occur at times and places designated by administrative officers in charge of such property.

Duplicate inspection reports (Form 1-514) must be prepared, giving a complete inventory of all property to be sold, with a statement of its condition and the reasons for its sale.

The property must be advertised by posters (Form 6-750). The posters should be put up in conspicuous places at least 48 hours

before the sale. All sales must be for cash, and a record must be made of each article sold, including the name of the purchaser and the amount received. Articles of small value may be sold in lots, but each item in the lot, as well as the price for which the lot is sold, must be reported. Inspection and sale reports must agree as to the items they include. Accounts of auction sales must be rendered in duplicate, on Form 6-70, and, as soon as practicable after the sale, must be forwarded, with the inspection reports, to the director through the proper division or section chief, together with the amount realized from the sale.

Public property that is unsalable and of no value may be disposed of as indicated on the inspection-report form.

DISBURSEMENTS.

Numerous Federal laws regulate the handling of disbursing funds. Disbursing agents are required to submit their official accounts to the accounting officers of the Treasury, who pass upon the legality of all disbursements made.

SPECIAL DISBURSING AGENTS.

Employees of the bureau who already hold appointments from the Secretary of the Interior may be designated by him to serve as special disbursing agents, no additional salary being attached to such designation.

BONDS.

Special disbursing agents must give bond before they can qualify as such at the Treasury Department. Bond forms, accompanied by instructions, will be furnished by the director to members of the bureau who are designated as disbursing agents. The amount of bond is fixed by the director, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior.

CHECKS.

Special disbursing agents are required to have their funds deposited with the Treasurer of the United States.

They are also required, as a rule, to make disbursements by checks, and are thus relieved of the responsibility involved in the actual handling of cash. The Secretary of the Treasury may, however, specifically authorize disbursing agents to make payments in cash, by drawing for this purpose, in advance, through checks payable to themselves, a limited amount of money. Such authority is specific and not general. It permits the disbursing agent, when the needs