GOVERNMENT STORES

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 286, 27 August 1920, Page 6

GOVERNMENT STORES

INEFFICIENT BUYING

A BIG SAVING POSSIBLE

"Attention has been frequently called by the commissioners to the desirability of dealing comprehensively with the purchase of stores and supplies for the Uovernment service," says the Public Service Commissioner in his annual report, "Ttiß Public Service Act provides, inter alln, that the Public Service Commissionermay make regulations determining the mods of procuring stores or other material or requisites for the Public Service; but, as a proviso was added empowering the Governor-General to determine and' carry out methods of procuring supplies for tli© Public Service .independently of regulations framed by the Commissioner under the Act, the power given to the Commissioner has proved of little value, and the regulations made under the Act have,.as might be expected, liad only a, minor effect. ' "Experience during the war proved the) value of a purchasing' Department for war material, known as the Munitions nnd Supplies Department, and it would have been advantageous to extend the fuiHilions nf that Di-parlineut and retain it as a peace establishment for the purposeof purchasing stores and supplies for all Departments. This, however, was not done. At the present time it is more than, ever desirable to place the matter of •i chase nnd custody of stores on a sounder footing than it is on at present, and, with a view to determining the' beat method, the Commissioner recently set »1> a committee, consisting of Lieut.-Ool-jonel Avery, of the Dafence Department; Mr. R. E. Herron, Stores Manager, Public Works Department; Mr. B. B. Allen, Chief . Clerk, Government Printing and - Stationery Department; and Mr. A. D. Park, Public Service ■Commissioners' Inspector; to report on the question of co-ordinating the control and purchase of stores and material 0'- sucn Departments of State as are subject to the provisions of the PublicService Act. • "This committee has made a valuable report, in which it is estimated that the adoption of a central purchasing scheme would result in a 6aving to Government of 450,000 per annum, and has suggested a method of organisation, which, however, it may be necessary to discuss further before 6tepa are taken to adopt the report in its entirety. In any case, the unusual trade conditions existing at the present time are such that it might not be'possible to carry out the proposed scheme in its entirety without considerable loss of time.. "While the Commissioners are in accord with the recommendations of the committee, they consider that it would! be desirable, instead of awaiting the cs- ■ tablishment of tho full organisation proposed, to proceed forthwith to carry out the scheme of central purchasing by, tho appointment of a Director of Stores, who would bo assisted by the other members of the board proposed' by the committee, leaving tho question of the custody oil stores to be dealt with for the present by the existing stores organisations as fa/ as miffht be found practicable." '