Page:The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France, 1789-1907, Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged.pdf/278

Rh 317. The commissioners of the treasury are charged to watch over the receipt of all the national monies;

To order the movements of funds and the payment of all the public expenses consented to by the legislative body

To keep an open expense and receipt account with the receiver of the direct taxes of each department, with the different national customs-administrations, and with the paymasters who may be established in the departments;

To maintain with the said receivers and paymasters, with the customs-administrations, the correspondence necessary to secure exact and regular returns regarding the funds.

318. Under penalty of forfeiture they cannot make any payment except in virtue: Of a decree of the legislative body and to the amount of the funds decreed by it for each purpose; Of a decision of the Directory; Of the signature of the minister who orders the expenditure.

319. Under penalty of forfeiture also, they cannot approve any payment, unless the warrant, signed by the minister whom that kind of expenditure concerns, sets forth the date of the decision of the Executive Directory, as well as of the decrees of the legislative body which authorise the payment.

320. The receivers of the direct taxes in each department, the different national customs-administrations, and the pay-masters in the departments remit to the national treasury their respective reports; the treasury verifies and allows them.

321. There are five commissioners of the national book-keeping, elected by the legislative body at the same dates and according to the same forms and conditions as the commissioners of the treasury.

322. The general report of the receipts and expenditures of the Republic, supported by the special reports and the vouchers, is presented by the commissioners of the treasury to the commissioners of the book-keeping, who verify and allow it.

323. The commissioners of the book-keeping give information to the legislative body of the abuses, defalcations, and all cases of responsibility which they discover in the course of their operations; they propose on their part the measures suitable to the interests of the Republic.