by the President, as provided by section one hundred and seventy-nine, perform the duties of such head until a successor is appointed, or such absence or sickness shall cease. SEC. 178. In case of the death, resignation, absence, or sickness of the chief of any bureau, or of any officer thereof, whose appointment is not vested in the head of the department, the assistant or deputy of such chief or of such officer, or if there be none, then the chief clerk of such bureau shall, unless otherwise directed by the President, as provided by section one hundred and seventy-nine, perform the duties of such chief or of such officer until a successor is appointed or such absence or sickness shall cease. SEC. 179. In any of the cases mentioned in the two preceding sections, except the death, resignation, absence, or sickness of the Attorney General, the President may, in his discretion, authorize and direct the head of any other department or any other officer in either department, whose appointment is vested in the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to perform the duties of the vacant office until a successor is appointed, or the sickness or absence of the incumbent shall cease. SEC. 180 (as amended by act of February 6, 1891, sec. 91, 26 Stat. 733). A vacancy occasioned by death or resignation must not be temporarily filled under the three preceding sections for a longer period than thirty days. SEC. 181. No temporary appointment, designation, or assignment of one officer to perform the duties of another, in the cases covered by sections one hundred and seventy-seven and one hundred and seventy-eight, shall be made otherwise than as provided by these sections, except to fill a vacancy happening during a recess of the Senate. The duties of the Secretary of the Navy devolve upon the Chief of Naval Operations under the conditions set forth in a provision contained in the naval appropriation act approved March 3, 1915 (38 Stat. 929), reading as follows: During the temporary absence of the Secretary and the Assistant Secretary of the Navy the Chief of Naval Operations shall be next in succession to act as Secretary of the Navy. Under the authority of section 179, United States Revised Statutes, the following regulation was approved by the President: In the absence of the Secretary of the Navy, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and the Chief of Naval Operations, the duties of the Secretary of the Navy shall temporarily devolve upon the Chief of the Bureau of Navigation; in his absence, on the Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance; and in the absence of both of these, on the Chief of the Bureau of Engineering. (Article 392, paragraph 4, U. S. Navy Regulations, 1920.) It will be observed that under the general statute (sec. 177, U. S. Rev. Stat.) the duties of the head of any department, during his temporary absence, automatically devolve upon the "first or sole assistant thereof." In the case of the Navy Department, during the temporary absence of the Secretary of the Navy and the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, the duties of the Secretary of the Navy automatically devolve upon the Chief of Naval Operations by virtue of the above-quoted provision in the act of March 3, 1915. Under the provisions of existing law, the additional Assistant Secretary of the Navy authorized by section 4 of the act approved June 24, 1926, referred to above, will not at any time succeed to the duties of Secretary of the Navy unless specifically designated by the President pursuant to section 179, United States Revised Statutes, and then only in the event that the Chief of Naval Operations is also absent. The Navy Department is desirous that existing law be amended so as to provide that the Chief of Naval Operations shall be next in succession to act as Secretary of the Navy only during the tem porary absence of the Secretary and the Assistant Secretaries of the Navy. This can be accomplished by amending the above-quoted provision of law, contained in the act approved March 3, 1915, as proposed in the attached draft of bill. Enactment of this proposed legislation will involve no cost to the Government and, in view of the reasons herein stated, the Navy Department recommends early enactment of the inclosed draft of bill. Sincerely yours, CURTIS D. WILBUR, A BILL To amend the provision contained in the act approved March 3, 1915, providing that the Chief of Naval Operations, during the temporary absence of the Secretary and Assistant Secretary of the Navy, shall be next in succession to act as Secretary of the Navy Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the provision contained in the act of March 3, 1915 (volume 38, Stat. L. 929), providing that the Chief of Naval Operations, during the temporary absence of the Secretary and the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, shall be next in succession to act as Secretary of the Navy, is hereby amended to read as follows: "During the temporary absence of the Secretary and the Assistant Secretaries of the Navy, the Chief of Naval Operations shall be next in succession to act as Secretary of the Navy." [No. 34] THE PROCUREMENT SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES NAVYA LECTURE DELIVERED BY CAPT. FREDERICK G. PYNE, SUPPLY CORPS, UNITED STATES NAVY, BEFORE THE UNITED STATES ARMY WAR COLLEGE, WASHINGTON, D. C., DECEMBER 9, 1926 Yepezhava The bureau system of the Navy Department dates from the act of Congress of August 31, 1842, which abolished the Board of Navy Commissioners, organized by the act of February 7, 1815, and provided for five bureaus-Navy Yards and Docks; Construction, Equipment, and Repair; Provisions and Clothing; Ordnance and Hydrography; and Medicine and Surgery. Some of the original bureaus have been subdivided and new bureaus created. Some of the names of bureaus have been changed, but the principle of segregating the general duties of the Navy under definite heads has not been changed. In matters of procurement and supply, each bureau originally acted independently of the others. A General Order of March 30, 1882, issued by Secretary William H. Hunt, defining the duties of the bureaus, includes under each bureau, "It shall make all contracts for and superintend all the work done under it." At the navy yards, the same condition existed, each department of the yard acting independently. The first effort toward consolidation apparently was by a circular letter of Secretary William C. Whitney of July 15, 1885, to commandants of navy yards, directing that ice and other articles in common use in all departments of the yard be purchased by public advertisment or by written invitation to the principal dealers to secure a more reasonable rate than if purchased or contracted for by each department separately and supplied by different persons. Each department, however, had to provide for the payment of its own bills. In his annual report for 1885, Secretary Whitney devoted the greater part to a discussion of the business affairs of the Navy Department, severely criticizing the existing methods. As the present system is the result of Mr. Whitney's action, quotations from this and subsequent reports are appropriate. Mr. Whitney wrote: If one should take up the subject in this form and consider, in the first place, what business does the department transact? what should be the organization for its proper disposition? and compare it with the organization as it exists here and elsewhere, perhaps some light might be thrown upon the difficulties encountered under the present form of administration. * The natural division of the work of the department is into three branches: First. The department having to do with the personnel and the fleet ** Second. The Department of Material and Construction. This covers the construction, repair, and care of vessels before commissioned; their armament and equipment, including military stores (but not provisions and clothing), as (135) 20038-26-No. 34 well as the management and maintenance of dockyards, their buildings, machinery, and their civil establishment. Third. The department of finance and accounts, this covering contracts and purchases of all naval stores, flags, coal, stationery, and care of storehouses, etc. This division of functions is not the one existing. It properly separates, however, the business of the department for purposes of analysis and consideration. * It is with these last two branches of the service that the difficulties arise. The first or military branch may be placed out of consideration ***. With reference to the last two branches, note that it is the consideration of any ordinary business, and the first requisite to successful transaction of any business is a proper system by which responsibility is lodged in its appropriate place. This division, according to the functions, is one that is, in general, common to the systems of England, France, and Germany. * * * * * * * * * * In the first place, there is the financial department * where the ordinary purchasing, the payment of bills, the auditing, the general system of accounting, etc., are brought under one head. If a certain class of goods is required by a branch of the service, a requisition is made upon the financial department; there the accounts are kept, the distribution and disposition of the property accounted for; purchases are made largely by contract, * The inspection of goods and material is by the department for which they are intended. This seems to be a proper distribution or location of * * these functions. Here this business is scattered through all the bureaus. * * Without an efficient head to establish a system and attend to its proper enforcement in the matter of purchase, one would expect to find that order of things which has heretofore brought grave scandals upon the department * * * * * for the year ending June 30, 1885, * * * $138,000 was spent by the seven bureaus, each acting independently of the other for coal bought not in one lot, but at 166 several open purchases. * * * 299 different open purchases of stationery were made by eight different bureaus; $121,315.66 was spent for lumber and hardware by six bureaus in 499 separate open purchases. Eight bureaus supply stationery to ships; * to the same ship one bureau supplies electric lights and the light for general illuminating purposes; another supplies electric searchlights, and a third oil and light for the engine and fire rooms. * * * * * I do not question the good faith of the bureau officers through whom these purchases were made, nor that the purchases were for the most part honestly made. The abuses inevitable under a system of such divided responsibility for the discharge of duties which are only incidental to the general business of the bureau does not necessarily imply fraud or even indifference to the interest of the service. But under a system in which these purchases are a mere incident to their general business, it is inevitable that they should be neglected, and the suggestion I make is that they are not properly classified and placed under the proper management and control; * * * It is idle to suppose that abuses of the character I have glanced at can be prevented merely by a change in the personnel of the department. It is the system that is vicious. Each bureau in the matter of purchases being practically independent of every other and charged with duties to which these are generally subordinate, with no immediate responsibility to any common head, it is not only not surprising but it is inevitable that their purchases should be made without the precaution and the judgment and the sagacity which might be expected if that class of duties were confided to an individual selected for the purpose, and upon whom its entire responsibility could be concentrated. I have taken measures to obtain a complete inventory of the stock on hand at our various navy yards and stations. * * *I was not greatly surprised to discover that the stock on hand fails to agree with the amounts shown by the books of the department. * * * Were this business placed under a single and competent head, with entire responsibility, discrepancies like these, which, if known, would be fatal to the credit of any commercial house, could only occur in rare cases, nor then without blasting the character of the responsible officer. On June 12, 1886, Secretary Whitney appointed a board to take an inventory of all stores and material at the various navy yards and |