DEFENCE WORKS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20918, 19 October 1942, Page 2

DEFENCE WORKS

METHOD OF PAYMENT MR. SULLIVAN CRITICAL P.W.D, SCHEDULE HIGH (P.R.) WELLINGTON... this. day. Tlie system of payijient for defence Construction works was reviewed by Mr,,.. W.-Sullivan. ..(Nat.: ,Briy of Plenty) in the House of. Representatives on Saturday moruing, and the suggestion, was made .that, wherever possible; the work should be tendered for on a competitive basis'. Contractors, he explained, were asked to work On a schedule basis, but after .the .work was completed the department did not ■ want to,.pay out fullv because it was discovered that the schedule was too high. He knew that, in his own district, the cost of these works had been 15 to 20 per cent higher, than would have been .the case under ordinary competitive tendering. . The Minister of Supply,..the I-lon. D. G. Sullivan: There, is.,also a clause that provides for the revision.

The member went on to state that even after the contractors had sub' ’■pitted a tender the department had insisted on the schedule method- This was n,ot the . way to do business and the. regulations for defence construction ought to be scrapped because nobody, could understand them and uriiori. secretaries could riot interpret their meaning. fK