Call for tenders for public works

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33933, 28 August 1975, Page 10

Call for tenders for public works

Local bodies and Government departments involved in any form of construction should call for tenders for all their work, the New Zealand Contractors’ Federation says. Details of the successful tenderer s work should be publicised, too. the federation said in a paper distributed to the New Zealand roading symposium in Wellington.

It was time that all direct ‘ labour organisations werej made publicly accountable I for their activities. The federation said that if this was not done waste, and inefficiencies, would continue. The direct labour organisations could spend money as, and when, they saw fit if they did not have to account to the public, the federation said. “The result is that the tax- i payers, and . the ratepayers, i have no means of essessingi the efficiency of these organ-! isations.” The paper said that direct! labour did not pay for its

‘own mistakes but that they! i were paid for by the taxpay-' lers and ratepayers. It said that in Britain andl the Vnited States there had been a conversion to the contract system because, while direct labour organisations could easily put in a lower tender than contractors, their final costs would be greater than if a private contractor had been engaged. A lack of figures hampers any investigation into public body contracts, and according to the federation’s paper, “this very lack of available figures shows the truth of the assertions we have made.”