CO885-(18-19) — Page 670

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.885

19 PUBLIC, RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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CROWN AGENTS' ENQUIRY COMMITTEE:

This temporary portion of the staff would suffice to meet any temporary pressure

of work.

47. Overtime, sick leave, and vacations should be as far as possible in accordance with the regulations for similar classes in the flome Civil Service.

48. The above recommendations as to appointments are made subject to the discretionary power reserved to the Crown Agents, subject to the approval of the Secretary of State, to make special appointments.

SECRETARY.

49. The Crown Agents have furnished the Committee with the following account of the duties performed by the Secretary :—

"The Secretary stands to some extent outside the general staff of the office, and it may therefore be desirable to outline his duties."

He is the personal officer and assistant of the Crown Agents, appointed to assist them in the conduct of the business of the office.

"All letters, telegrams, &c., addressed to the office pass through the Secretary's hands, and it is his duty to see that all documents of interest and importance are sent to the Crown Agents before they are passed on to the departments for action, thus securing to the Crown Agents that they shall not remain in ignorance of what may be going on.

"The Secretary is also entrusted with the general supervision of the work in the Pay and Miscellaneous Departments, where he relieves the Crown Agents of the conduct of all the minor correspondence. He also signs letters and cheques up to a specified amount, on behalf of the Crown Agents, work which though mostly of a routine character can only be safely delegated to an official in a responsible position. The Secretary also undertakes

work any that may be specially delegated to him by the Crown Agents." Further, it appears from the evidence that, although he exercises a certain super- vision over the Miscellaneous, Correspondence and Records Branches and over the Pay Department, he is not an intermediary between those Departments and the Crown Agents. He seems to have but little connection with the other divisions of the Office, and he is not, like the Secretary of an ordinary Department, an officer who brings together in his hands all the branches of the work, acts as a co-ordinating authority, and places questions with his own advice before the Heads of the Office.

50. The Committee are not prepared to make any immediate recommendation on this subject, but they are of opinion that at a future date, when the improved organization which they recommend has had time to make its results felt, it will be possible to determine more exactly the proper relations of a Secretary both to the Crown Agents themselves and to the rest of the staff.

ENGINEERING INSPECTION DEPARTMENT.

51. One of the most important services which the Crown Agents' Office performs is that of providing for efficient inspection of the stores purchased for the Colonies. Formerly this work was carried out entirely by means of outside inspectors paid by the job. Of recent years, however, a staff of inspectors regularly employed by the Office on fixed salaries has been established. The large majority of these are engaged on the inspection of engineering and other similar stores dealt with by the Works Departinent and form the Engineering Inspection Department, which consists of—

A. The Headquarters' Staff-

1 Chief Inspecting Engineer.

2 Deputy Chief Inspecting Engiucers.

2 Class IV. Clerks.

8 Temporary Clerks and Copyists.

B. 27 Inspectors on salaries varying from £3 38. to £5 a week, stationed Although these officials are not

in various districts about the United Kingdom.

REPORT.

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on the establishment, and their services can be dispensed with at short notice, they nevertheless form part of the Engineering Inspection Department. The amount of the work performed by the Inspection Department has grown rapidly.

In 1907 the value of the work inspected by the Engineering Inspection Department was £1,213,875, against a total of £245,883 dealt with by outside inspectors. These figures are exclusive of work for the Uganda Railway and of marine work of various descriptions.

52. In connection with this inspection work the Crown Agents make a somewhat curious distinction. The charge to a Colony for the inspection of stores is exactly the same whether the inspection is carried out by the Inspection Department or by outside inspectors. But in the former case the Crown Agents regard the Office Funds as liable for the payment of compensation to a Colonial Government if the goods prove musatisfactory, while in the latter case they deny all liability. They contend that while inspection by the Inspection Department is inspection by the Crown Agents' staff, for whose neglect they are responsible, the outside inspectors are employed, not to enable the Crown Agents to carry out a part of their regular work-the inspection of stores purchased-but on behalf of a specific Colonial Government for a definite piece of work. According to them, therefore, in such a case the Crown Agents only act as intermediaries for the selection of the inspector, to whom the Colonial Government must look for redress in case of default. The Committee consider that in the interests of the Colonial Governments, if the Crown Agents' Office Fund is to be regarded as liable for faulty inspection, it should be so regarded whether the inspection is performed by men employed on fixed salaries or by men selected by the Crown Agents and paid by the job.

53. The Committee approve the policy which the Crown Agents have adopted of carrying out as much of the inspection work as possible by means of their own staff, though they recognise that there are some branches of work in which this course cannot be adopted with advantage. It is; however, obvious that a heavy responsibility is thrown on local inspectors of the Department, and the Committee therefore desire to emphasize the need for constant supervision by the Head Quarters' staff.

PENSIONS AND GRATUITIES.

54. In a letter, dated 14th May, 1863, the Crown Agents, in suggesting the establishment of a Reserve Fund, mentioned as one of its functions that from it might be paid "some small pension or gratuity

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to deserving clerks, who, from length of service or otherwise, might justly have a claim to such consideration." They went on to say that "unless the clerks in this office are considered as having a claim under the Imperial Superannuation Act, the formation of a Reserve Fund, "for the purposes already stated, appears to us to be a matter of simple justice towards "them," and that "If no provision of this kind be secured to them, either by the "Government or the Agents-General, they may reasonably expect to be remunerated at rates such as they would obtain in a mercantile establishment, and it is only "reasonable to suppose that, failing this, their services in this office would be of short "duration."

55. The Secretary of State and the Treasury agreed that, while neither the Crown Agents themselves nor any member of their establishment could be paid superannuation from Imperial Funds, since they were not paid by the Imperial Government out of the Consolidated Fund or from moneys voted by Parliament, nor were they paid by any particular Colony, yet it would be “advantageous to the Colonial Service to give these officers, as nearly as may be found practicable, the same advantages in respect The "to Superannuation as those possessed by officers of the Imperial Government." Treasury laid down that "the rates of contribution from the Colonies respectively "should be adjusted from time to time so as to meet the charge" for pensions "which "is to be considered as part of the general expenditure required for the conduct of the Agency," and that if the Colonies agreed to this "the Agents-General and the "officers of their establishment may therefore be considered

as having a "claim upon the general income of the Agency to superannuation subject to the same "conditions as are in force with respect to the Civil Servants of Her Majesty's

Reference :-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO'

-CMANEISEN BUATORE ADULS.