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B-200513 1 (1981-01-07)

handle is hein.gao/gaobabjye0001 and id is 1 raw text is: COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES WASHINGTON D.C. 20548 B-200513 January 7, 1981 Daniel Malachuk, Jr. Deputy Special Assistant for Administration White House Operations Dear Mr. ralachuk: Your letter of September 16 invites our coments on your(proposal to be Treasury Department to change lke administration of -*e Compen- sation of the President account] , You/propose that payments from the expense subaccount portion of-The compensation account be certified directly by the White House Administrative Office rather than by the Comptroller General as has been the case historically;. Because your proposal would merely apply administrative procedures whtvch are present- ly utilized in the certification of payments frcn other White House ac- counts, including those set forth in 3 U.S.C. S 105(d) (Supp. III, 1979), and because we are aware of no statutory requirements to the contrary, This Office does not object to your proposal.j The President's salary and expense accounts are currently both appropriated by Congress in the Compensation of the President account pursuant to section 102 of Title 3, United States Code (1976), as amended. See, for example, the Executive Office Appropriation Act, Title III of the Act of September 29, 1979, Pub. L. No. 96-74, 93 Stat. 563. LThis Office currently certifies payments from bothi the salary and expense accounts. W hile legislation provides for the amunt, taxability and timing of payments made from the compensation account, the actual ad- ministration of the account is more a matter of historical practice than legal prescription. We are not aware of any statutory mandate as to the actual method of payment from the President's Compensation Account. ,.The Comptroller General assumed the responsibility for certifying the President's compensation payments as one of the duties performed by his predecessor, the First Comptroller of the Treasury, and trans- ferred to the Comptoller General by section 304 of the Budget and Ac- counting Act of 1921. 31 U.S.C. § 44 (1976). In 1949, the expense account was authorized as a permanent subaccount of the compensation account provided for in 3 U.S.C. § 102 when Congress both increased the President's salary and provided him with an additional expense allowance of $50,000 for which no accounting shall be made by him. In 1951, the so that the nrtion not exp?.rded for official expenses could be retained by and taxed to the President as incone. Act of October 20, 1951, ch.