New Building Sought For Govt Depts

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32126, 23 October 1969, Page 12

New Building Sought For Govt Depts

(New Zealand Press Association;

WELLINGTON, October 21. A specially designed Government building to house the Ministry of Defence, the Department of External Affairs and the Security Service should be constructed without delay, says the annual report of the Parliamentary Public Expenditure Committee. The report was tabled in Parliament today.

This proposal is among recommendations put forward after investigatirfn of the problem of rent for new premises. The report said evidence given to the committee showed that on two recent occasions, after considerable time had been spent in negotiations, the External Affairs Department finally rejected accommodation offered on the grounds that the department’s special security and other requirements were not met. “Where departments have unusual and special requirements, private accommodation should not be sought for them unless the buildings can be planned at the outset to meet their needs,” the report said. It said that because of security and other requirements this department should be housed in a Governmentdesigned and owned building. Similar considerations would apply to the Ministry of Defence and the Security Service. The committee found that substantial losses of public

moneys had occurred because of the failure of Government departments to occupy promptly premises for which rent had already been paid, and that there had been lack of forward planning, undue delay by departments in setting out their requirements, and failure to carry out detailed instructions. It recommended that the State Services Commission exercise a closer scrutiny to avoid a waste of public moneys in the office accommodation field, and that the commission accept responsibility for office and specialist accommodation, such as laboratories and workshops. The report said there was evidence that time and money could have been saved by on-the-spot discussion and decis-ion-making, instead of conducting negotiations by correspondence. The committee told of five eases in Wellington involving Government departments where amounts written off as nugatory rent ranged between $5OOO and $15,000.