AIR MINISTRY.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16721, 2 January 1920, Page 8

AIR MINISTRY.

DISCLOSURES OT FRAUD. Startling disclosures are made in the latest report of the Rritisli Select Committee on National l'_xponditure which was lately issued as a "White Paper. It deals principally with affairs affecting the Air Ministry. Some twenty-nine witnesses were examined, and as the result of tho investigation tho report says: — '•Your committee aro of opinion that a very unsatisfactory state of affairs lias been "revealed. In their opinion, when eases of negligence or of fraud havo, been discovered, action should be taken against the offenders regardless of who-' tlier they are ofiicials of the Department or not." Evidence of a remarkable character was given by Sir Jchn Hunter. Administrator of Works and Buildings. He told tho meinbers that speaking generally, no man of tho 70,000 engaged; on tho work of the erection of aero- j dromes had earned the money he re-, ceived. and ho went on to give details | of a specific case in which, he alleged, there had l>een a conspiracy. This was at Renfrew, and he charged Government men and contractor's men with regularly dm'ving money as wages fori men who die! not exist. He had four! men arrested, but the Lord Advocnto declined to order a nrosccutnn, on the. ground that tho eridenco available was ' not. sufficient to afford any strong prob- j ability of obtaining a conviction. The. men were accordingly freed. The letter | from the Lord Advocate's secretary put • forward the following additional reason j for not taking action "Further, a would reveal, what appears to be inefficiency and ah- I scnco of control on the part of tho re-j preventatives of tho Ministry on tliei spot." j Sir John Hunter went on to state 1 that from tho investigations made by ; a firm of measurers it appeared that ! there was "a sum of about £00,0001 charged by tho contractors to the job which cannot be accounted for," and that ho had applied to the War Office, asking them to court-martial an officer employed by the Air Ministry on tho same contract whom ho suspected of fraud, hut that tliov refused to tako nnv action, and informed him that hej ought to take criminal proceedings. Revelations of an equally extraordin-| ary character aro mado in the report relating to a clothing contract for the: Women's "Royal Air Force. Briefly, the | story told to tho Committee by Miss O'Sullivan, tho Clothing Controller of t''c> force, wns that a contract for 60,000 garments was given to a Manchester firm whose patterns had been rejected in favour of those of another establishment; that.tho deliveries were not up to sample; and that she found that tho coat-frocks were being cut on tho bias instead of on tho straight, a course which, if pursued, would havo resulted in a saving to tho advantage of the contractor of three-quarters of a yn.rd per garment. Tho committee's comment regarding the Lord Advocate is that "they regret very much_ that ho should havo taken up the position that ho did."