Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 March 1880 — How the Government Pays Its Pills. [ARTICLE]

How the Government Pays Its Pills.

A writer in one of the magazines says: A great part of the work in the Treasury Department is necessarily in the line of keeping accounts, and possesses little int rest to people who are not exceptionally fond of liguriug. The general principle which governs the whole system of auditing and settling accounts against the Government is to provide every safeguard against fraud, and this is so successfully accomplished that a dollar could not be got out of the treasury illegitimately without the collusion of so many persons that it may be set down as a pr cheat impossibility. Suppose a man has a bill against the Government. The head of the department or bureau to which the matter properly belongs makes a requisition for the amount upon the Secretary of the Treasury, using a prepared blank which asks him to cause a warrant for the amount in question to be issued in favor of the party, the same to be charged to the particular appropriation by Congress out of which the sum ought to come. But before the requisition reaches the Secretary it must pass under the eie of the proper Auditor and Comptroller and receive their countersign, the Auditor at the same time charging the amount to the account of tiie disbursing officer' in whose favor it is issued. If all goes well so far, the Secretary issues a war rant to the Treasurer, directing him to pay over the money, which he does by issuing a draft for the amount in favor of the Government’s creditor, but not until the warrant has been countersigned by the proper Comptroller and registered by the Register. Indeed, the draft itself must go to the Register ;for comparison and registry before it is passed over. There seems to be a good deal of red tape in all this process, but it is a sort of red tape that saves the country money in the long run.