Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the First Session Thirty-ninth Congress
Mr. Sanford to Mr. Seward
Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith, in translation, some data I have procured touching the attributions of the court of accounts of this country, and which I owe, for the most part, to the obligingness of one of its counsellors, M. Misson, and which I think may be useful for reference.
I do not send the laws referred to therein, as I have not all in my possession; but if desired by the department, I will forward them on so far as I can procure them.
In my despatch No. 250 to the department, in the month of March last, I suggested that, in view of the probability of an early termination of the war, and the changes in the various departments of the government, required to meet the new condition of things caused by it, series of questions touching the system, organization, and workings of similar departments in Europe be prepared and sent to our public officers abroad, in order that our government might be able to profit by the experience of other countries, and our agents be able [Page 93] to labor intelligently to that end. I still think that most valuable information, especially in respect to systems of revenue and taxation, collection of accounts, &c., &c., can be obtained, of the highest importance in forming a definite legislation for ourselves on these vital subjects.
I have the honor to be, with great respect, your most obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, &c., &c., &c.
[Untitled]
The great principles which govern public accounts in Belgium are derived from the constitution and from the law of the 15th of May, 1846.
The court of accounts was created by the constitution of 1831, and organized by the law of the 29th October, 1846; it is charged with the examination and the liquidation of the accounts of the general administration, and of those of all having accounts with the treasury; it sees to it that no article of expenses of the budget is exceeded, and that no transfer takes place; it audits the accounts of the different administrations of the state, and is charged to this end to collect all necessary information and vouchers.
The court judges and passes upon the accounts of the state and provinces.
No requisition is paid by the treasury except with the visa of the court, which visa is only given by that body after having examined and verified that the payment asked for is really destined to acquit a debt of the treasury; that it is applied for the time and for the purpose specified in the appropriation; that it is due to the parties in whose favor it is drawn; that the conditions of the contracts or bargains have been faithfully and exactly executed; in fine, that it is a regular debt, which is due and has to be paid.
When the court deems it proper not to give its visa, the motives of its refusal are examined by the cabinet; and when it decides that the payment shall be made upon its responsibility, the court visas, but renders an account of its course and the reasons thereof in its annual report to the chambers.
The justification of a credit can be made subsequently to the visa in two cases only, to wit: when the nature of the service demands the opening of credits for an outlay to be made, and where the continuation of a service carried on from motives of economy requires advances to the agent of said service.
These advances cannot exceed 20,000 francs ($4,000,) and their employment must be accounted for to the court within the delay of four months.
The opening of a credit for outlays to be made is by an ordinance ad hoc, which is submitted for the preliminary visa of the court, and this credit is disposed of by drafts upon the agents of the treasury in favor of the creditors of the state. The payments are audited monthly by the court of accounts, which, after examination of the vouchers annexed to the ordinances of regularization, visas them.
A duplicate of the great book of public debt is deposited with the court of accounts, which sees to it that the transfers and payments, as well as the new loans, are duly inscribed therein; it also sees that each accountable functionary furnishes the caution money provided for as a guarantee for the faithful performance of his official duties.
All bonds whatever, of loans or of conversions, and certificates of caution money must have the visa of the court.
The court keeps a duplicate of the pension register. The pension certificates are vise and registered by it after examination and payment.
The inventories of furniture furnished by the state are deposited in its office, and it receives from the head of the ministerial departments a detailed statement of the property and revenue of the state.
The court of accounts corresponds with the ministers direct; it corresponds also with the accounting officers in what relates to the rendering of their accounts; it fixes the delays within which their accounts must be deposited at its office. It can condemn those who are behindhand to a fine to the profit of the state, not to exceed half of the salary, independent of suspension or loss of office, which it can cause if there is ground therefor. Every condemnation to a fine is pronounced upon the demand of the youngest counsellor, who acts as public prosecutor.
The court judges and passes upon accounts, it establishes by definitive decisions whether or no the accounts of accounting officers are balanced, are in advance or in debt; in the two first cases it pronounces a final discharge, and orders a restitution of the caution moneys, and, if need be, the raising of injunctions and mortgages upon their property by reason of the functions incident to the account passed upon. In the third case it condemns them to pay their debt to the treasury within a delay which it prescribes. In each case a copy of these proceedings is addressed to the minister of finance, that he may see to their execution. Three years after the cessation of his functions the accounting officer has a definitive discharge, if [Page 94] the court of accounts has not otherwise provided. The court, notwithstanding a decision which has definitively passed upon an account, can proceed to its revision, either upon the demand of the accounting officer, supported by vouchers recovered since the decision or proprio motu for error, omission, or double entry, discovered in the verification of other accounts.
The decisions of the court against accounting officers are carried into effect, unless within three months appeal is made to the court of cassation for violation of form, or of the law. In case of cassation, the affair is sent before a commission ad hoc from the House of Representatives, and judged without appeal.
The court of accounts is composed of a president, six counsellors, and a clerk.
The president and the counsellors must be at least thirty years old, and the clerk twenty-five years; the latter has no vote; they are named every six years by the House of Representatives, but can be dismissed at its pleasure. The members of the court cannot be related or connected with each other by marriage within the fourth degree inclusive, nor at the epoch of their first appointment related or connected within the same limit to a minister; they cannot be members of either house, nor fill any office salaried by the treasury, nor be interested, directly or indirectly, in any enterprise liable to accountability to the state; they cannot exercise by themselves, or in the name of a wife or any other intermediary, any kind of commerce, or be business agents, or participate in the administration of a company or industrial enterprise. They cannot deliberate upon affairs which concern them personally, or in which their relations or connexions to the fourth degree inclusive are interested.
For its ordinary labors the court is divided in two sections of three counsellors each; every six months changes are made in the composition of the sections in such way that every counsellor shall sit in both sections every year. The first section is occupied with auditing accounts; the duties of the second comprise the functions of comptroller, and the care of all that relates to the public debt; the accounts are closed and passed upon in general assembly of the court.
The court of accounts has no vacation.
No tax for the benefit of the state can be established save by laws; such taxes are voted annually.
No privilege can be established in levying taxes.
No exemption or moderation of a tax can be established save by law.
Exception in cases formerly specified by law; no citizen can be constrained to pay money save under the head of taxes for the state, province, or commune.
The chambers pass every year the law of accounts, and vote the budget, in which must be included all the receipts and expenses of the government. The vote upon the budget is by chapter and by article. By this means the chambers exercise a real and efficacious control upon the finances of the state.
Every law relating to receipts and expenses of the government must, in the first place, be voted by the House of Representatives.
The collection of state dues can only be effected by an agent of the treasury, whose mission it is, under the supervision of superior officers, to liquidate and compute the amount due from tax-payers, (excepting in case of direct taxes, which are confided to special agents,) to notify to them the amount thereof, to collect the same, and to prosecute therefor, in accordance with the laws and regulations laid down for that purpose.
These agents, before entering into their functions, must take oath and deposit the amount of their bonds, or caution money, which is regulated according to the importance of the collections which they are employed to make.
They are responsible for the full amount of the taxes which collection is confided to them, and they are not discharged from this responsibility with respects to sums not collected except upon proof that the non-collection did not proceed from their negligence, and that all necessary prosecutions had been made.
Every collector, depositary, or agent whatsoever, in charge of the public moneys, must obtain, in case of robbery or loss of funds, proof that it was the result of superior force, and that the precautions prescribed by the regulations were taken, or he is held accountable for the same.
The amount of collections made by these agents must be paid to the treasurer-general once or twice a month, according to the importance of the receipts, orders, and necessities of the service.
On the 31st December every year their papers and books are passed upon by functionaries or agents appointed for that purpose, and in a detailed minute the amount of money and the cash and bills on hand, which is annexed to the account of their stewardship, and which they are required each year to render to the court of accounts. This account presents all acts in connexion with their office during the year, whatever their nature, and to whatever service, public or individual, they may relate.
It presents—1st. A list of moneys on hand in cash or in bills, and of bills receivable at the commencement of the year. 2d. The receipt and expenses of every nature made during this period, specified in detail. 3d. The amount in cash and bills on hand, and the amounts remaining to be collected, or the sum which the agent is in advance.
The individual accounts have annexed to them statements showing by article and by subdivision the dues remaining uncollected at the close of this fiscal term, with the reasons for [Page 95] non-collection, the justification of the agent, and the observations and opinions of the provincial directors.
The minutes of the condition of the cash account and of bills receivable drawn up at the end of each year by agents of the administration, specially appointed for that purpose, are also annexed to the individual accounts of the agents; they enable the court not alone to verify the amount in cash and bills reported in the general account of finances, but also to examine into the character of the bills.
The public treasury has prior lien upon the property of its agents, and the officers specially and directly charged with the supervision and control of their accountability are responsible for any deficit which may have been occasioned by a remissness in verifying the conduct of the functions of the defaulting agent. The degree of responsibility of these functionaries is decided by an administrative inquest before which they are examined, and after inspection of all the papers, books and documents of accountability, this inquest is ordered by the minister to whose department these functionaries belong.
If it results that these functionaries are in fault, and as such declared responsible, the recovery of the sum charged to them is prosecuted as provided for by law, and if need be, for withholding their salary, without prejudice to disciplinary measures to be taken in the interest of the service.
The heads of the ministerial departments send to the courts all documents serving to show a right required to the State. These documents enable it to verify the annual accounts of the agents.
After being culled by the court, these documents become themselves the elements of verification to arrive at the correctness of the results stated in the accounts of budgets or fiscal period.
The above accounts serve the court, therefore, for the successive examination of the account of the past fiscal year, and of the provisary account of the succeeding year, concurrently with the following documents:
1st. The books of payments made for account of budgets and of special funds voted for the wants of corresponding fiscal years. (These books are kept in the bureaus of the court.)
2d. The discharges delivered by the court for payments made and justified.
3d. The statements of payments made as verified by the duplicates of the receipts which receive the visa of the agents of the treasury in the provinces, in conformity with article 4 of the law of the 15th of May, 1846. (These duplicates or minutes—talons—of receipts, which are transmitted to the court quarterly, enable it to exercise a control in comparing the funds whose payment is announced, with those receipted for in the account of the treasurer, and to thus verify the regularity of the accounts, the one by the other.)
4th, and finally. The statement of receipts and expenses as shown by the virements of accounts in the general comptabilité.
These operations of virements of accounts in the general comptabilité of the finances apply to articles of receipt and expense which only represent changes of designation, movements of accounts current, and other operations which give rise to no material entry or outgo of money.
To the general account of the finances is annexed an account of the treasury, showing the movement of funds the issue and payment of bills payable as well as the receipts and expenses in account current, and which have for object as much to maintain the equilibrium between the resources and wants of the State, as to assure everywhere the punctual payment of the public expenses. This account has annexed to it the balance-sheets of the administration of finances, showing the situation, on the 31st of December of the year which has expired, the operations of the current year, and the situation on the 31st of December.
By the aid of the account of the treasury, the court of accounts can follow every movement of the public moneys, and assure itself as to the employment of the funds of the state from the receipt of the taxes up to the payment of the public indebtedness.
Public debt.—The special account of the public debt is also joined to the general account of the finances; it gives the situation of the different kinds of debts, and makes known by means of tables annexed thereto, the amount of the capital of each of them and the amount of the interest money at the different periods when it falls due, the situation of the sinking fund and that of credits granted by the budgets. The said tables make known, finally, the amount and the number of existing pensions, the movements and the motives of increase or decrease thereof.
Sinking fund.—The resources destined for the extinguishment of the national debt are placed at the disposition of the bureau of the sinking fund semi-annually, by orders having the visa of the court, and the employment thereof is justified subsequently to it, by the accounts of the bankers who have made the purchases in the markets.
After having published in the Moniteur notice of the same, the titres brought in are destroyed by an officer of the department of finances in the presence of the delegate of the commission of supervision, of a member of the court of accounts, and of the lenders when their intervention is demanded by the terms of the loan.
These operations are ratified by a minute (procés verbal,)the duplicate of which is sent to the court of accounts.
Floating debt—When it is foreseen that the ordinary resources of the government will not [Page 96] suffice to meet all its expenses, a provision of the yearly loan of wages and means authorizes the government to issue treasury bonds up to a certain sum. When it reaches a large amount and can embarrass the government it is transferred into consolidated debt.
These treasury notes are vise by the court of accounts, and those paid are returned to it every fortnight.
The bureau of the sinking fund and that of the depôt et consignations (where caution money is deposited by public officers or their bondsmen) were organized by the law of 15th of November, 1847. The royal decree which provided definitively for the execution of this law is of the 2d November, 1848.
The law which organizes the service of treasurer of the state is dated May 10, 1850. The bases of the organization of the service of the treasury in the provinces were determined by royal decree 28th October, 1850. See, also, the instructions of the minister of finances, dated 5th and 21st of December, 1850.
A royal decree, dated December 27, 1847, regulates the service of expenses payable by the agents of the treasury in the provinces.
Another royal decree of December 27, 1847, provides for the application of the articles of the law of accountability which relate to the duration of the exercice, the accounts of the state, of the ministers, and of the agents with the treasury, and the accountability of the provinces.
The decree which regulates the form of the budgets and their relations with the accounts, to be rendered is dated February 19, 1848.
The royal decree, of November 15, 1849, brings together the provisions in vigor touching the comptabilité of the state, and regulates the application thereof.
A royal decree, dated December 6, 1853, regulates the accountability touching objects of consumption and of transformation belonging to the state in every department of the public service.
A royal decree to assure the regular and uniform execution of article 47 of the law of accountability touching furniture, provided by the state, was published March 26, 1858.
Public revenues.—The budget of ways and means is divided into four chapters:
Taxes, tolls, capital and revenue, payments.
Taxes, properly so called, are divided into direct and indirect. Of these two fiscal sources, the first, which is derived upon real and personal property, licenses the sale of spirituous liquors, and tobacco is fixed annually, and is consequently certain, foreseen, and obligatory. The second, the indirect revenue, is, from its nature, essentially variable, having its source in consumption—changes, in a word, in all that constitutes social activity.
The branches of revenue which compose the three last chapters are derived from services carried on by the government, or from payments made to the treasury from divers sources.
Owing to the moderation of the taxes, as well as to the comparatively easy circumstances of the people, the revenues of the state are collected with remarkable regularity.
The budget of ways and means increases each year by the single fact of the development of public prosperity and the progressive increase of the population.
The direct taxes comprise the real estate tax, the personal licenses, dues from mines, retail of spirituous liquors, retail of tobacco.
The real estate tax is based upon cadastral valuation.
The bases of the “personal” tax are the following:
Renting value, (valeur locatiff) doors and windows, fireplaces, furniture, domestics, horses.
The license tax comprises trades, commerce, and the professions in general.
The dues from mines reach directly those working mines, and according to their degree of prosperity.
The principal aim of the law of March 18, 1838, creating a tax upon the sale of distilled liquors, was moral rather than financial.
The tax upon the sale of tobacco was established by the law of December 20, 1851.
Vouchers of receipts.—These are documents going to show a right acquired by the state, the reports of revenue, and receipts.
Vouchers of expenses.—Every draft upon the public treasury, in order to be admitted for payment by the court of accounts, must be sustained by documents which show that the object is to pay in whole or in part a debt of the state.
Thus for the personnel expenses there must be produced statements setting forth the grade, character of employment, the position as to presence or absence, the service done, the duration thereof, the deductions to be made in favor of the caisse of widows and orphans, and the net amount to be paid.
And for the expenses of the materiel: 1st, copies or extracts, duly certified, of royal decrees, or ministerial decisions, of contracts of sale, orders or minutes of acceptance, of leases, agreements, or bargains; 2d, detailed statements of the deliveries, of regulation, and of liquidation, showing the service rendered and the sum due on account or in full.
If need, be the court demands other vouchers to verify the credit to the persons in cause.
Vouchers of payments.—The drafts which are paid are transmitted quarterly to the court, by the director general of the public treasury; after examination and admission of the same they remain deposited at the court with a copy of the statements concerning them; the other copy, clothed with the visa of reception and admission, is sent back to the director general of the public treasury, to be annexed to the public account.