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Purchase of store and materials in England.
Contracts placed by Crown Agents.
Relative position of the parties
in the work.
17. Such Stores and materials as are obtained from outside the Colony are ordered through the Crown Agents for the Colonies, the necessary indents being prepared by the Resident Engineer and passed in the same way as the rest of his correspondence through the Colonial Government. It should especially be noted that the Crown Agents have no authority to act on indents received through any other channel. It may in cases of urgency sometimes be necessary to order stores 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 Engineer should be able to forecast his requirements sufficiently to order everything 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 Engineer to prepare specification or other particulars necessary to enable tenders to be invited. The work of inviting tenders is done by the Crown Agents by whom all contracts are placed and supervised 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 responsible by the Secretary of State for everything connected with the purchase of stores for the Crown Colonies.
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 subject to the approval of the Secretary of State and the arrangements for their execution are also subject to his general approval.
(b) The Colonial Government watches and supervises the progress of the work but delegates the technical control to the Consulting Engineer.
(c) The Consulting Engineer is responsible for the conception
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