BOROUGH COUNCIL CONTRACTS.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXI, Issue 12541, 1 December 1904, Page 4

BOROUGH COUNCIL CONTRACTS.

, - SUPPLY OF SPECIFICATIONS,

A CONTRACTOR'S COMPLAINT.

At the meeting- : of the-Borough Council, held on November 14th, Cr Hawkey mentioned a grievance of one of the contractors that he had not been supplied with a copy of the specifications of nis contract It was ascertained that copies of specific*tions Lad not been supplied for many yeare-j that when copies are supplied by architects- and others they have to be paid tor ; th a t they are not really necessary to enable a contractor to carry out his work; and that the originals are always open to inspection. The Council agreed that copies shaJl not be given, ® la l k ' con tractor in quesday to state the circuS^c»°{S C !J e f!? r V °" i - er tllat the people might see what s/nJ ™ Ce f / md wiafc had I. , from the circumstances. ilr Black stated that he was the «uccessful contractor for cutting down and forming certain streets, and put the work !" n '' a F 4 Several times during its execution he applied to the borough overseer (° r a ™ py °. f . the specifications under which he was working, but was in each ca.se reused. He was, however, told-he could i le at the and make notes from the original, which was kept in the offirp P" m f g a lon K experience of contractfor various bodies, Mr Black hid r e 2 ef r, been ke " fc a copy of the Specifications, and he considered that it was not right, for the Council to wHh hold what everyone else had supplied what necessary to enable the work to be properly done. He completed the work 'f he thought, nearly a month ago, and in due course, m accordance with the conditions, received the proportion of the pay. ™eariv W fiim W3S th ? n 6; . 25 P er f' i , wae . to remain unpaid for thirty days, that is to say, till the end thVwn^ I '' At this ste « e . however, to! w?. gh werseer pointed out to Air pSff r A s ™ U P ° rtion ° f the —k Dfea don' W th 6 bad not seen ScW 4 ¥ he bad »<* bv<- h* , r - ft refe . r ™g to that work, v ..-I- T® ' car "ed out. This j COWp e ' lolJ rs onlv. Wl.-it SSSS-SI

portion of the work, the deferred portion was being further withheld till flinty days from the completion of "that portion. As he had been expecting the full payment by a certain day, he had made financial arrangements according-y, and had therefore been much inconvenienced: He had applied on one occasion to the Mayor for a copy, of the document, and he twitted him with the fact that a contractor- of his experience 1 had' not taken care to get a copy before he started; and told him he should have demanded a copy. He had demanded it several times. When the matter came before the Borough Council, he noticed that the Mayor backed up the town clerk in the contention that he should not have one. Mr Black added that he had been contracting for over thirty years for a number of bodies, and wa6 overseer for the Wai- : mate County Council for sixteen years; and never before had he known such a thing to occur. PRACTICE OF OTHER BODIES. On making enquiries, we find that -the i practice of the Levels County Council and of the Harbour "Board is to supply contractors, gratis, with copies of specifications if they wish to have them; the Harbour Board goes even further, and sends copies to prospective tenderers. An architect and engineer informed a reporter that there were absolutely no regulations on this point; every body made 'its. own regulations, and no contractor could insist upon more than being allowed to see the specifications. It was, however, customary in most cases to provide copies for which, if necessary, either the contractor or bis employer paid. In such cases, if the contractor paid, lie just ad-r-ded the cost to his tender. He did not i think a contractor could expect more than I perfect liberty to copy what he required; i personally hev considered that it would be in many cases more convenient to let him have a copy than to havei him coming frequehtly into the office jotting down portions.

The town clerk said that about twenty years ago, a resolution was passed that in future no specifications be copied for contractors. This was because,' previously to that time, the Council's engineer who made the copies, charged the contractors therefor? and they in turn debited the Council with the amount. Thus the Council had to pay for two copies made by their engineer, and they naturally objected. A contractor now, however, was at perfect liberty to see the documents at any time; the Council would provide him with pen, ink, paper, and assistance to make any copy he required. The Mayor stated when spoken to on the matter that at the time Mr Black approached him he was unaware of that resolution, and could but uphold it when he learnt of it.