ALLEGED PROFIT OF £78,000

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24867, 6 May 1946, Page 5

ALLEGED PROFIT OF £78,000

AUSTRALIAN SALVAGE CONTRACT (Rec. 6 p.m.) CANBERRA, May 5. A contract between a Melbourne syndicate and the Commonwealth Salvage Commission had been severely criticised by the Commonwealth Auditor-General (Mr R. Abercrombie) said the Deputy-Leader of the Federal Opposition (Mr E. J. Harrison). The criticism had been made in a special Report. In a statement last Thursday, Mr Harrison said it was estimated that £78,000 had been made out of a contract between the Salvage Commission and a firm. The auditor-general, in his special report, had said: “There are features in this contract which in normal circumstances would be considered far tom satisfactory. No tenders were apparently called. “The dealing was made with a Melbourne syndicate, not yet registered as a firm, in respect of materials lying in Sydney and Brisbane. The terms, which appeared to be unusually easy, were made for use of the commission’s stores and for delivery of materials at the cornmission’s expense.” Mr Harrison was immediately taken up by the Minister of Information (Mr A. A. Calwell) who said he would investigate the matter if Mr Harrison would produce evidence. A Melbourne message says that an important witness in the inquiry will be a prominent businessmen, who is absent in Palestine on a business trip, but who will shortly return to Australia.