SECRECY ON TENDERS

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29728, 23 January 1962, Page 14

SECRECY ON TENDERS

“Undemocratic, Uneconomic”

“The Press" Special Service AUCKLAND, January 22. Secrecy maintained about successful tenderers and prices for Government purchases of plant, machinery and stores, was undemocratic and uneconomic, the Constitutional Society's submissions said

After some years when no facts about government tender prices at all could be obtained, the Government had recently decided to modify the procedure so far as construction projects of £lO.OOO or more were concerned, but this apparently still left all other purchases secret.

The New Zealand procedure differed materially from most other Western countries In Britain, all international and large Government tenders were opened publicly For smaller contracts a list of offers was published after the order had been placed AU British local bodies published the results of tendering and often repeated them in trade journals and magazines

In the United States, tenders were by law opened publicly and tie results were published, often in great detail. In Australia names and prices on Government tenders were published in the magazine “Tenders” or, if not published, were available to other tenderers on application

“New Zealand appears to be the only Western country which has placed bureaucratic convenience before oublic policy by suppressing publicity on tender prices and conditions." the submissions said The society urged the commission to try to discover what special conditions, in the official view, existed in New Zealand which required secrecy in the handling of tenders which were not present in Britain, Australia, or other similar countries.