64                            Department of Finance.                      [tj 149

the forms of keeping and rendering ail city accounts, and, except
as herein otherwise provided, the manner in which all salaries
shall be drawn, and the mode by which all creditors, officers and
employes of the corporation shall be paid. All payments by or
on behalf of the corporation, except as otherwise specially pro¬
vided, shall be made through the proper disbursing oiificer of the
department of finance, on vouchers to be filed in said depart¬
ment, by means of warrants drawn on the chamberlain by the
comptroller, and countersigned by the mayor. The comptroller
may require any person presenting for settlement an account or
claim for any cause whatever, against the corporation, to be sworn
before him touching such account or claim, and when so sworn,
to answer orally as to any facts relative to the justness of such
account or claim. Wilful false swearing before him is perjury,
and punishable as such. He shall settle and adjust all claims in
favor of or against the corporation, and all accounts in which the
corporation is concerned as debtor or creditor; but in adjusting
and settling such claims, he shall, as far as practicable, be gov¬
erned by the rules of law and principles of equity which prevail
in courts of justice. The power hereby given to settle and adjust
such claims shall not be construed to give such settlement and
adjustment the binding effect of a judgment or decree, nor to
authorize the comptroller to dispute the amount of any salary
established by or under the authority of any officer or depart¬
ment authorized to establish the same, nor to question the due
performance of his duties by such officer, except when necessary
to prevent fraud. The comptroller shall not reduce the rate of
interest upon any taxes or assessments below the amount fixed
by law. No contract hereafter made, the expense of the execu¬
tion of which is not by law or ordinance, in whole or in part, to
be paid by assessments upon .the property benefited, shall be
binding or of any force, unless the comptroller shall indorse
thereon his certificate that there remains unexpended and unap¬
plied, as herein provided, a balance of the appropriation or fund
applicable thereto, sufficient to pay the estimated expense of
executing such contract, as certified by the officer making the
same. But this provision shall not apply to work done, or sup¬
plies furnished, not involving the expenditure of more than one
thousand dollars, unless the same is required by law to be done
by contract at public letting. It shall be the duty of the comp¬
troller to make such indorsement upon every such contract so
presented  to him,  if there remains unapplied and unexpended