PRIVATE CONTRACTS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1739, 19 May 1888, Page 3

PRIVATE CONTRACTS.

TO THE EDITOR.

SlB, —Would you kindly inform me, through your valuable paper, whether it ia lawful for public bodies to let contracts without calling for tenders for them ? In my own opinion, whether they have the power to do so or not, it is « very wrong thing to do. It is not fair to be throwing all the jobs in the way of a few, without giving everyone a chanse of going in for them, and then let the cheapest man have it. *Vhen contracts ate let without giving us all a chance, such of ns as do not ge' such nibbles think that it is done out of favoritism, and, I think, we are not far wrong. I could name some jobs of this kind, but I would be suspected, may bo, and would not get any more jobs, good or bad.—l am, etc.,

CONTRACTOR.

[lt is lawful for local bodies to let small jobs without calling for tenders for them. Road Boards can let up to £2O worth of a job without ctlling for tenders, and no more. A Road Board cannot let privately a contract for which they have to pay over £2O, unless it is a work of urgent necessity. We do not know what the limit is in the case of a Town Board. Ii is very seldom, however, that any Board lets contracts, no matter how small, without calling for tenders for them, because they find that it often resnl s, through the increased competition, in saving them ten tiroes what the advertisement costs. Another thing is, it is the most straightforward way of doing work. Everyone then gets a chance of competing, and no one can grumble. As, you say, when jobs are lot in a hole-and-corner way outsiders are liable to suspect something ; but our experience is that it is very rarely local bodies let jobs in that way, and perhaps what you grumbled at was something urgent, which required immediate attention. — The Editor.]