62
APPENDIX 14.
BUILDING MATERIALS—PROCUREMENT, STORAGE AND CONTROL OF ISSUES.
This Report sets forth certain proposals in connection with the fifth and sixth of the terms of reference of the Committee, that is to say:-
46
(v) To advise on the policy for importation of building materials.
"(vi) To recommend what Government control (if any) should be imposed to ensure that materials in short supply are allocated in the best interests of the community."
2. In regard to the importation of building materials, present procurement action is through the following channels:
A. Military Procurement.
(a) Military procurement of all the items in Sheets 90-91 of Appendix "A" to War Office Memorandum B.M.C.A. 13/734 of the 23rd August, 1945, has been sanctioned by the Validities Sub-Committee of the War Office Shipping and Supplies Committee, and action to call forward these supplies has been taken. They were intended to constitute a "first-aid" provision only, in connection with building reconstruction during the military period.
(b) Certain building materials have been received by Col. C.A. (Works) from D.C.E. 144, as immediate provision to meet pressing needs for repairs and reconstruction in the interests of the Military Administration.
B. Civil Procurement.
C.
(a) Procurement by the Crown Agents for the Colonies is in progress on indents prepared by the Hong Kong Planning Unit of the Colonial Office, against ad hoc sanctions of expenditure issued by the Treasury as an ultimate charge against the funded debt of the Colony. Procurement of further requirements through this channel is under consideration.
(6) Procurement of building materials in Australia, New Guinea and Okinawa from military surpluses and other sources, has been and is being effected on Government account.
Commercial Procurement.
(a) Certain prominent foreign firms are procuring materials for importation for
sale, and/or for the rehabilitation of their own premises.
(b) Procurement to an unknown extent by Chinese and other local contractors has begun, and is increasing with the development of communications and trade with the mainland.
3. The quantities of materials known to be under procurement through the above channels are quite inadequate for the huge programme of reconstruction with which the Colony is faced. If the accommodation factor is not to retard the rehabilitation of the Colony an active policy in the stimulation of imports of building materials must be pursued. With the end of the military period, military procurement will presumably be limited to procurement for the repair and reconstruction of Services buildings, and it is therefore by the development of programmes of procurement on Government account and on commercial account that the needs of the Colony must be met.
(a) Development of procurement on Government account. Where materials are in short supply and perhaps subject to allocation, or where Government-to-Government dis- posal of Military and other surpluses offers peculiarly favourable terms of purchase, the advantages of procurement on Government account are manifest; and, provided that such supplies, thus procured, as may not be required for direct use on Government buildings are sold without delay within the Colony, the financial liability of the Government will be limited, and extensive expenditure of Government funds, on a temporary basis, would appear to be unobjectionable.
(b) Development of procurement on commercial account. A number of factors, which are examined in the Report, of the Committee, may have deterred, and may still deter, commercial and private enterprise from procurement. These factors need not be cited here; it is sufficient to state that everything possible should be effected along the lines recommended by the Committee to promote confidence and enterprise in this connection. An important element in giving effect to this policy would be the extension to commercial firms of the advantages which Government may enjoy in its own procurement, whether by way of obtaining priorities in allocations of materials in short supply; by acceleration of delivery dates through official intervention in the countries of supply; or by securing early shipments on favourable freights. Such aid could be given in many directions, and as