MUNITIONS CONTRACTS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 150, 14 March 1918, Page 7

MUNITIONS CONTRACTS

INVESTIGATIONS SAVE VAST SUMS

EFFECTIVE CONTROL TO CHECK WASTE

London, March 12. A severe indictment of the Ministry of Munitions is the feature of .the report of the committee which has been inquiring into national expenditure. The Ministry erected national factories valued at sixty-six millions and granted private firms sixteen millions to meet capital expenditure. The_' Ministry's officers are the only security the taxpayer has that these enormous sums were wisely spent. The sxim of three millions was saved on cordite alone by reduction of prices after accountants had investigated, the cost, and similar investigations had resulted in savings of thirty-five millions in the cost of gun ammunition duTing the two years ended September, 1917, as compared with the first year of the war. In another case a contract for gun equipments was £7,750,000, which waSj reduced by two millions after a Government accountant had investigated tho contract. The report states that another company took an engineering contract for four millions sterling, made a profit of £1,300,000, and then offered a considerable rebate for a further order, on which it made a second profit of half a million. Tho firm refused any arrangement pending an investigation of its books. The committee proposes to check this profligacy hy an effective control of costings, fixing rates of profit, and strengthening the authority of the Finance Department.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.