MILLIONS LOST BY WASTEFUL METHODS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2855, 21 August 1916, Page 6

MILLIONS LOST BY WASTEFUL METHODS

CONTRACTOR'S "RINGS" Australian-New Zealand Cable Association. (R«c. August'2o, 5.5 p.m.) London, August 19. The Public Accounts Committee's report for the period of 1914-1915 criticises the extravagant payments for billeting, tbo waste of rations, and the large commissions which were paid to brokers. The naval deficit totalled £51,751,000, and the Army dcficit was £211,867,000. The Ministry of Munitions (says the Teport) effected substantial reductions in prices, despite the increased cost of labour and materials, by compelling the contractors to supply btatements of manufacturing costs, and exeroising its requisitionary powers. The committee regrets that tho Admiralty did not possess a similar system beforo the war of breaking up contractors' rings, and was only now slowly introducing such a system. The Government had effected a saving of £3,000,000 annuall.v in sand-hags alone by taking over the jute trade. Forty thousand pounds was lost in the purchase of unsuitable horses :in Ireland. Inferior animals were supplied in substitution for those which had been bought. Tho Army Council's refusal to reconsider until tho end of the war the s3 - stem of paying retired and active service pay to retired officers rejoining tho service involved a cost of £700,000 a year. Civil Servants and Naval officers did not enjoy a similar concession. The cost of "hutting" the troops, hospital patients, and horses in the United Kingdom was £24,500,000.