CIVIC HONESTY

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 121, 22 May 1926, Page 7

CIVIC HONESTY

SYDNEY CITY COUNCIL

ELECTRICAL CONTRACTS

ISSUE TO BE TAKEN TO COUBT,

(United Press Association.—Copjright)

(Received 22nd May, 10 a.m.)

SYDNEY, This Day.

The manner in which recent City Council contracts, involving about a million sterling, for plant and machinery for the Electricity Department, were decided in committee and in council, has caused considerable dissatisfaction and uneasiness in civic circles. Legal advice has been received from a leading King's Counsel to tho effect , that certain decisions of the council ' for various reasons were ultra vires. As a consequence, it has been decided to invoke the' aid of the Law Courts I with the object of securing a thorough [ investigation of the circumstances surrounding the placing of the contracts. On 22nd March the Labour aldermen of the Sydney City Council, on a purely party vote of 12 to 9, forced through a decision to accept five contracts submitted by the Commonwealth Shipping Board for turbo-alternators required in connection with an electric powerhouse. Tho material will cost £700,----000, ana will be constructed at Cockatoo Island Dockyard. The Eeform aldermen raised the question of whether Cockatoo Island was capable of carrying out the work, and whether a Government concern had a legal right to compete with local industrial firms. They also urged consideration oi an English tender, "which, besides being lower, would provifle a larger amount of work in Australia, but discussion was gagged.