The Comptroller of the Treasury was an official of the
United States Department of the Treasury from 1789 to 1817. According to section III of the Act of Congress establishing the Treasury Department, it is the
comptroller
A comptroller (pronounced either the same as ''controller'' or as ) is a management-level position responsible for supervising the quality of accounting and financial reporting of an organization. A financial comptroller is a senior-level executi ...
's duty to
:''superintend the adjustment and preservation of the public accounts; to examine all accounts settled by the
Auditor, and certify the balances arising thereon to the
Register; to countersign all
warrants drawn by the
Secretary of the Treasury, which shall be warranted by law; to report to the Secretary the official forms of all papers to be issued in the different offices for collecting the public
revenue, and the manner and form of keeping and stating the accounts of the several persons employed therein. He shall moreover provide for the regular and punctual payment of all monies which may be collected, and shall direct
prosecutions for all delinquencies of officers of the revenue, and for
debts that are, or shall be due to the United States.''
The first person to hold this office was Nicholas Eveleigh.
[Heidler, David S. and Jeanne T. Washington’s Circle: The Creation of the President. New York: Random House, 2015.] It was also held for a time by
Gabriel Duvall
Gabriel Duvall (December 6, 1752 – March 6, 1844) was an American politician and jurist. Duvall was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1811 to 1835, during the Marshall Court. Previously, Duvall was the Co ...
, who would later serve on the
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
. The office was later several times renamed. It was the First Comptroller of the Treasury (1817–20), the Agent of the Treasury (1820–30), and
Solicitor of the Treasury (1830–1934), and is now the
Office of the General Counsel.
References
External links
Fact sheet on the Act of Congress establishing the Treasury Department
{{US-gov-stub
Eveleigh's biographic note on the web page for the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress 1774 - Present
https://bioguideretro.congress.gov/Home/MemberDetails?memIndex=E000263