CO885-(11-12) — Page 375

297

FUBLIC PECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

CO.882/12

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

|ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

106

Drainage Branch.

4. The staff of this branch according to the 1931-32 Estimates consists of:

Inspector of Drainage Works Foreman of Drainage Works

Salary. Rs. 2,400-240-1,000 2,400-240-3,600

Both the officers are at present employed on the new Sewerage Scheme for Port Louis which is being carried out by a Drainage Engineer and special staff engaged for the purpose, the cost being chargeable to a special Loan Fund. It is not necessary, there- fore, to consider the constitution of this branch except to the extent of noting that it is wholly employed on work which is outside the usual range of the Colonial Government's functions, and that its cost should fall upon the Special Fund rather than upon the departmental Estimates. On the completion of the scheme the staff required for maintaining the work should be transferred to the Municipality, but pending this transfer the cost of current maintenance of the completed part should be charged in the estimates of the Public Works Department as a special item of expenditure.

Roads and Bridges.

5. This branch is very similar in its constitution to that of the Building Branch, and is composed as follows:-

Chief Inspector of Roads

2 Inspectors of Roads

Junior Inspector of Roads

6 Assistant Inspectors of Roads

12 Overseers

Salary. Rs. 4,800-300-6,000

3,600-240-4,800

2,400-240-3,600

1,800—240—2,760 900-120-1,500

The duties of the Chief Inspector of Roads correspond closely with those of the Chief Inspector of Works. He is in charge of the whole island and reports to the Assistant Director who is the controlling administrative officer. subject to the reservation to the Deputy Director of certain special responsibilities, including the final approval of all estimates and plans.

The two Inspectors, the Junior Inspector and one Assistant In- spector divide the island territorially, the Junior Inspector and Assistant Inspector performing precisely the same duties as those of the Inspectors. Their work corresponds with those of the Inspectors and Assistant Inspectors of work, consisting in the pre- paration of estimates and requisitions for repairs and construction and the subsequent supervision of the Works. The actual road work is entrusted to the Assistant Inspectors and Overseers, who again perform identical duties, except that the more important work would be allotted to the Assistant Inspectors.

on

107

6. The first question which naturally arises in considering the Building and Roads Branches is as to the need for maintaining two entirely separate organizations. This question would arise from the similarity of the work even if both staffs were fully em- ployed under the existing arrangement, which is admittedly not the case. According to a statement made to us by the Director the total volume of the work to be performed is such that both sets of duties could be combined by the executive staff of the Roads and Bridges Branch provided that those officers had the requisite experience. Having regard to the nature of the work in ques- tion we are unable to agree that this difficulty justifies duplicate organizations. It is not as if the Building Branch was engaged work requiring a programme of difficult constructional specialized skill in the details of the operations. The list of the items of work at present in hand as furnished to us by the Deputy Director was meagre in the extreme, consisting mainly of minor repairs to small police stations and small residential quartere. It is inconceivable to us that executive officers who are capable of supervising the construction of bridges could not be entrusted with the small building repairs which form the greater portion of the work of the Building Branch. One special difficulty which was mentioned to us-that the inspectorial staff engaged in road and bridge construction are not qualified Land Surveyors-can hardly arise so long as the department has in its employment a Land Surveyor whose services can be made available in connexion with building work as and when the need arises. The staff at present employed on the work of road repairs is admittedly much in excess of current or immediately anticipated requirements. Work on new road construction is for the time being at a stand- still, and, having regard to the fact that the main road system of the island is already more than adequate to meet the traffic demands which will be made upon it for several years to come, it appears to us to be quite out of the question that any extension of the system should be undertaken until the Colony is completely freed from its financial difficulties. Some measure of the present overstaffing on the road service may he gained from a statement made to us by the Director that, with his existing staff of In- spectors and overseers, he could remetal, roll, and tar twenty-five miles of road each year, without interfering with the ordinary maintenance service. From our personal observation of the state of those roads which have not yet been remetalled and tarred we have no hesitation in expressing the opinion that any expenditure in that direction at the present time would be a wholly unjustifiable extravagance.

7. Quite apart from the question of duplicated organization we are of opinion that the distributions and methods of work stand urgently in need of revision. The chain of responsibility extend-