GOVERNMENT STORES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3830, 9 August 1927, Page 38

GOVERNMENT STORES.

HEAVY EXPENDITURE

(From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, August 2. The annual report of the Stores Control Board states that the expenditure for the year amounted to £3,877,275. With the exception of a few instances of urgency, the usual procedure of obtaining tenders and quotations was followed. The requisitions dealt with numbered 10,470. and 381 contracts were arranged for daily supplies, mostly perishable foodstuffs. These figures do not include contracts and requisitions dealt with by the three purchasing departments —Railways, Public Vi oiks, and Post and Telegraph. The board’s schedules of standardised stores have been printed, and tenners invited for periods varying from one vear to three years. Six of 'the 55 schedules, covering stores , which are manufactured within the Dominion. have been dealt with, and contracts arranged Generally speaking, the competition was keen, and apart from the convenience of the system, it is estimated that a saving of approximately 10 ner cent, will be effected. The total number of items included in these six schedules is 345, and as delivery is required at several centres, nearly 4000 separate prices had to be considered. The estimated expenditure is, in round figures. £20.000. the whole of which, with the execution of less than £lOO, will go to New Zealand manufacturers.