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Show 68 REPORT OF THE CO'MMISSIONEB OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. The act provides in part: * * * and when so surveyed, platted, and appraised, the Preaident may issue patents for such Iota upon the payment of the appraised value. The issuance of patents is under the jurisdiction of the General Land Office. WORK OF THE BOOKKEEPWC- SECTION. WHAT WE ARE TRYING TO DO IN THE WAY OF RDNNING THE BUSINESS ON A BUSINESS BASIS-LIABILITY RECORD AND COST-KEEPING LEDGERS. The financial bookkeeping of the office hitherto has consisted only of ledgers and other records designed merely to keep account of re-ceipts and disbursements under the various appropriations and funds. These, with improvements made in the year last past, are admirably adapted to their purpose, but were found not to go far enough for an up-to-date business concern such as the Indian Office has grown to be. Hence additional ledgers for keeping account of retained shares of individual minor and incompetent Indians in per capita payments of trust funds, with the interest accruing thereon, have been already installed, as have also ledgers and cards for recording all obligations incurred against appropriations and funds. By use of these last the commissioner can ascertain at any time just how much of any appro-priation or fund has been hypothecated and the exact balance avail-able for future authorization. Data for this record is obtained in the following manner: From every commission, appointment, and letter a'uthorizing the expenditure of money, a charge of the amount estimated to he needed is made against the appropri*tion or fund involved. Any savings ~ausedb y failure to expend the full amounts hypothecated are then ascertained from reports of disbursing officers, supplemented by a system of checking in the office, and again made available for authori-zation. Disallowances and transfers from one appropriation or fund to another, made in the settlement of accounts and claims, are similarly treated, with the result that what was largely a matter of guesswork in the past is now a mathematical certainty. Realizing the necessity for more detailed knowledge of expenditures than could be obtained from existing records without a tremendous output of time and labor, there has also been installed a system of "cost keeping" designed to be a current record, by items and appro-priations, of the expenditures made for each and every agency, school, and project in the service. |