RAILWAY TENDERS

Taranaki Daily News, 1 August 1931, Page 9

RAILWAY TENDERS

DISCLOSURE OF PRICES.

BOARD NOT IN FAVOUR.

No undertaking to disclose the prices submitted by all successful tenderers for the supply of material can be given by the Railways Board, according to a communication from the general manager, Mr. H. H. Sterling, read at a meeting of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce.

The letter stated: “The board is of opinion that eases must arise in which a hard and fast adherence to such & rule as you advocate .would not be in the best interests of the railway business. The safeguarding of the railway business must, of course, be the first consideration of those whose responsibility it is to control this service, and there must be a correlative power of. deciding what is best to be done to achieve that end. It is on this principle that the department must decide when tender prices should be published and when they should not be published. • Mr. A. G. Lunn expressed disappointment with the reply. He contended that it was only fair to all tenderers that they should know the price quoted by S successful tenderer. . Mr. W. A. Boucher remarked that the Public Works Department and the Post ihd'Telegraph Department did not seem to object to the price of accepted tenders being made known. The question was referred to the executive.