GOVERNMENT HOUSES

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 458, 16 June 1937, Page 6

GOVERNMENT HOUSES

SOUTH ISLAND TENDERS Dissatisfaction Among Local Builders Press Association —Copyright. Invercargill, June 15. Tenders were recently invited for two important Government construction works, the Invercargill pot‘l office and the first block of Government houses, but from opinions obtained from leading Invercargill contractors it appears unlikely that there will be many tenders from local buillets for these contracts, which are expected to have an aggregate value of over £7(1.000.

There :<■ a good deal of dissatisfaction among builders about the terms under which the tenders have been invited. One builder stated that the system adopted by the Public Department (tended to favour large outside contractors and that it was probable that local would not benefit from the contracts.

Tenders for Government houses require an itemised schedule price for each section of the work on each house, the total price being arrived at from the sum of the individual listt' occupying several sheets of paper. The contractors contend that this requirement is an imposition and greatly adds to the work involved in supplying estimates, which for an unsuccessful tenderer is entirely non-reproductive.

It is stated that the “master schedule” system has been introduced: in the north to a considerable extent but the present contracts are the first experiences of it Invercargill builders have had. Some confusion has also been caused because of the fact that the specifications having been prepared' at Wellington they are in accordance with the North Island system of timber grading, whereas the system followed in Southland is entirely different. Tenders for 22 houses? in the first block to be erected under the Government scheme close at Wellington to-morrow, and while it is understood several tenders from Invercargill have been submitted it is considered there has been much less competition from Invercargill contractors than there would have been had the tenders been called under conditions to which the contractors were accustomed.