(viii)
expected, the Contractors positively deny having given bribes to the Officers of the Public Works Department, although they admit that the practice of sending annual presents of no great value is a common one.
10. The well known custom of the Chinese in the matter of giving vails and surreptitious commissions to employés, and the statements made by more than one of Appendix the witnesses, leave no room for doubt that presents, not only of jewellery and other
pp. 23, 82,
105, 109,
111, 118,
220, 232.
84, 85, 89, valuable articles, but also of money, are not unfrequently offered by Native Contractors 119, 160, and others to the persons appointed to superintend both public and private works. It is obvious therefore that opportunities exist for the acceptance of such presents by Officers of the Public Works Department without much risk of such transactions becoming known to their official chiefs. The professional gentlemen in private practice who have been examined do not consider that the Government system of supervising works is more open to abuse, or lends itself more readily to corruption of any kind than that Appendix commonly applied to the inspection of private works; or that it can be improved, excepting 82-5, 102, in one particular, with regard to which the attention of the Commission has also been
201-12. specially called by the Assistant Surveyor General and Mr. FLEMING.
pp. 78,
106, 110,
116, 122,
11. The class of Officers in the Public Works Department whose position renders them most exposed to temptation are the Overseers, whose ordinary duty is to super- intend the carrying out of contracts and the general detail and character of work done by Contractors and others. It is mainly upon the reports of these Officers, subject to supervision by the Surveyor General or his Deputy, that work is passed and payments are made, and it is no doubt necessary that more or less trust and confidence should be reposed in them. But, in addition to the duty of superintending work, it appears that the Overseers are frequently called upon to undertake another, viz. the measuring of piece work, and checking, approving, and settling the amounts of bills sent in for payment, for the efficient performance of which the evidence tends to show they are as a rule scarcely qualified, and in respect of which, in the opinion of the Commission, too great responsibility is vested in them. The Commission is of opinion that a special Officer, or more than one if necessary, thoroughly qualified for this duty, and of assured character and sufficiently paid, should be appointed, whose peculiar province it should be to measure work in progress or completed, and to compare calculations based upon the figures thus taken with the original estimates framed in the Surveyor General's Office, so as to provide an independent and trustworthy check upon the accounts which are sent in for payment by the Government. This Officer might also undertake the duty of supervising the Overseers, and be made useful in assisting the Surveyor General and his Deputy in the superintendence of the Public Works in progress, and in inspecting the material used by the Contractors.
12. The Commission moreover is inclined to attach much weight to the recommenda- tion of the Surveyor General that a class of men generally superior to those now employed, and better remunerated, should be engaged as Overseers.