40
Contracts placed by Crown Agents
Relative position of the parties in the work.
have no authority to act on indents received
through any other channel, It may in cases of
urgency sometimes be necessary to order storas
on the initiative of the Consulting Engineer
without the authority of the Government; but
this should be quite exceptional as when once
the works are fairly started the Resident 3n-
gineer should be able to forecast his require-
mants sufficiently to order øverything with the
cognisance of the Colonial Government without
risking delay to the works.
18.
Indents for stores are upon receipt
by the Crown Agents sent to the Consulting En-
gineer to prepare specifications or other parti-
culars necessary to enable tenders to be in-
vited. The work of inviting tenders is done
by the Crown Agents by whom all contracts are
placed and supervisad and the inspection of the
materials arranged for. All arrangements for
shipment and for the payment of accounts are
also made by the Crown Agents who are held res-
ponsible by the Secretary of State for every-
thing connected with the purchase of stores for
the Crown Coloniee.
19. To sum up, the relative position of
the parties to the construction of a large
public work is briefly as follows:-
(a) The work in the first instance is sub-
ject to the approval of the Secretary of State
and the arrangements for their execution are
also subject to his general approval
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(b)