| OCR Text |
Show 54 COMMISSIOREB OP INDIAN AEEAIBS. wills considered, 123, or 71.5 per cent, received approval and 49, or 28.5 per cent, were disapproved. NEW SYSTEM OF BOOKKEEPING. The Indian appropriation act of June 30, 1913 (38 Stat. I,., 103), required a new system of bookkeeping to be installed in the Office of Indian Affairs which would afford a ready analysis of expenditures by appropriations and allotments and by units of the service, show-ing for each class of work, or act.ivity, the expenditures for salaries and wages of employees, etc. In order to comply with this law a new system of bookkeeping, devised by the Indian Oflice, was installed throughout the service July 1, 1916. However, the act of May 18, 1916, directed the Bureau of Efliciency to prepare and submit a system to the Secretary of the Interior on or before December 31, 1916. This was done, and the system recommended by the Bureau of Efficiency has been adopted. The new system is divided into two parts denominated, respec-tively, "Fund accounting" and "General accounting." It was ordered that the fund accounting feature should be installed by the disbursing officer for each unit of the service July 1, 1917, in accord-ance with printed instructions. The general accounting feature is to be installed at the various units as soon as practicable after the first of July under the personal direction of representatives of the Bureau of Efficiency and such employees of the Indian Service as may be available for the purpose. The new system differs materially from the one heretofore in use, being designed to show the actual cost of the various activities by expenditures of money and property, rather than by cash dis-bursementg alone. FORESTRY. OBQANIZATIOANND ~DMINI~TEATI~N. -Eto~ i~mop~ro~v~e the ad-ministrative force met with much success during the first half of the year; but during the last two months of the fiscal year the force wss weakened by the withdrawal of four technical men to serve in the American military forces. The Regulations and Instructions for Otlicern in Charge of Forests a Indian Reservations, approved June 29, 1911, were amended on March 17, 1917, to embody changes found desirable for the more ,efficient administration of Indian timber. In this connection changes were made in the allotment and tribal timber contract forms, and a new timber contract form introduced for the sale of logs, etc., cut by Indians from their allotments or from tribal lands. Several forest survey report forms were adopted dnring the year. New regulations for the more eficient sale of the products of the Menominee Indian mills were approved and put into effect October 1, 1816. |
