316
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of these departments for payments made to the Electrical Branch. but the note will indicate that, viewed commercially, the Railway and Telegraphs Departments incur this additional expenditure through the Electrical Branch.
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22. The present expenditure of the branch is the result of re- organization following recommendations by the Railway Com- missioners in 1928. The Commissioners pointed out that they were dealing as much with an independent government depart. ment as with a single section of the railway administration," and formed the opinion that "the electrical work of the Government should not be undertaken by a branch of the railway." We agree to the extent that the branch should be separated from the com- mercial system of the railways, but the branch should remain subordinate administratively to the General Manager, who should be responsible for the electrical estimates. The Commissioners revised the staff of the branch and secured certain savings, and we make no further suggestions in this respect. Our general scheme for reducing rates of pay should be applied to this department, but not to the clerks and workmen, and should reduce the personal emoluments charges of Rs.57,861 by Rs.3,560.
We regret that the Commissioners should have recommended the electrification of the Plaine Lauzun workshops and set an example of increasing the strain on the balances or borrowing power of the Colony by undertaking new capital expenditure when it was not absolutely necessary to do so. There may be savings which will ultimately cover the capital charge, but meanwhile good machinery is scrapped, and the Colony which has such difficulty in its Ways and Means has had to find the cost of the new plant from its balances.
These undertakings would perhaps be justifiable in normal cir- cumstances, but are quite inappropriate in the actual circumstances of the present time.
23. The figures preferred by the Railway Department for the reduction of services to a goods basis show a reduction on this account of Rs.23,151 in the expenditure of the Electrical Branch. We are not confident that this saving would be realized, and do not therefore claim it as an element in our scheme for balancing the railway budget. We have discussed the details with the late Acting General Manager and have come to the conclusion that part of the anticipated savings would be obtained by the simple expedient of repudiating the share of certain posts which by the costing system would be allocated to the railway; but a post on Rs.4,000 will still cost the colony Rs.4,000 even though no part of the cost is carried by the railway. We would not use costing as an absolute guide, though we can use it for some 'general indication that there should be some saving. This is confirmed by the fact that the Government Electrician considers that his annual working expendi- ture, which will stand at Rs.110,000 after the full introduction of
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the new power contract, may be reduced to Rs.97,000 or Rs.90,000 On the with the suppression of railway passenger traffic. assumption that the Government Electrician will secure these savings as far as possible we make no special recommendation for the reduction of posts and labour.
In our figures of cost for the Railway Department we have allowed for some savings on the transformation of the workshops from steam to electrical power.
24. We have to thank the Government Electrician for the clear information as to the allocation of costs in his department. Apart froin the railways, the heaviest charge is the maintenance of light- ing, fans and other plant for government departments. The post office telegraph system at present costs only Rs.15,000, but this is due to the fact that the wires are carried on the same telegraph poles as the railway telegraphs. If no work were done for the railways, the electrical costs of the post office telegraphs might rise to as much as Rs.37,000, charges hitherto shared being carried We think it desirable, as we have by the telegraphs alone. suggested above, that the budget should always show how much work is due to the Telegraph Department. The point is of im- portance in considering whether the charges for telegrams are adequate.
Should the work contemplated by this branch for the sewage- pumping stations and the granary make these items of sufficient importance, the amount of these new charges should also be shown by a footnote in the budget.
Harbour and Granary.-Head 29.
25. The new quays and the new granary have been constructed by the Harbour Engineer and remain under his control since his appointment as General Manager of Railways; he receives an allowance of Rs.7,500 for the charge. We can conveniently dis- cuss the financial effect of these works in the same chapter as the railways.
Capital outlay on the harbour works has ceased with the ex- penditure of Rs.2,685,000, which was drawn from the Improvement and Development Fund up to the year 1929-30. The total expendi- ture on the granary has been Rs.2,449,000, and this has been found from surplus balances. The 1931-32 estimates include a supple- mentary estimate for Rs.30,000 for the electrical equipment of the granary, and a bonus of Rs.21,000 to the General Manager of Railways for satisfactory completion of the works; he similarly received a bonus of £1,300 on the completion of the quays.
26. The expenditure, Head 29, provides a total of Rs.112,500 for the working expenditure of both the granary and the quays. Excluding the allowance of Rs.7,500 to the General Manager of Railways, which in chapter XIII we have recommended should
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