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Q.-No, you are not in a position to say a man receives bribes, because
see it.
A.-Nor am I in a position to say he could receive them.
you don't
Q.-But I wish you would give us some idea of the talk you have heard, because it gives some idea of the dangers to be guarded against. If you were to ask me about my own department, I know postmen may extort small sums of money by altering marks, and I know there have been cases; I can't say there is any man who does so now, but it is a danger to be guarded against. Could you tell us something like that?
A. No. I would not like to say anything that has been told me in conversation, because I don't think it is fair. The things I have heard, many of them I don't believe myself, and I should not like to repeat what I have heard in casual conversation and did not take much notice of.
Q.-But without mentioning names could you not give us some idea of the general
drift of these statements?
A. The general drift is that some Overseers may have taken bribes.
Q.-Exactly, and had opportunities for doing so?
A. I suppose every one has opportunities of being dishonest.
Q.-Have you ever heard it suggested some of these Overseers have a share in the business of the Contractors?
A.-No, never.
Q.-Then in what general direction would this bribery come in? Would it be for specific neglect of duty, or in the shape of a gentle douceur at the beginning of the year?
•
A.-I can only imagine it would come in just as at home, where a Clerk of Works has been known to favour Contractors by passing work which he ought not to have passed. It is known at home.
Q.-There is a point on which you can give information. As far as you know does much of that go on at home?
A.-No, taken on the whole it does not, but still it is done.. I have known cases myself of passing bad work and favouring Contractors, and that is why Architects prefer to employ Clerks of Works themselves. That is the rule at home-not for the client to employ them, because the Architects know the Clerks of Works and very often keep them on when there is no employment, simply because they know they are honest.
Q-Have you any trouble at Tai-tam with Contractors who don't know their business, that is, who don't do the work they might fairly be expected to do, and you have to do it for them?
A.-No, we have not come to that yet. Most of the work we have done so far has been day work, and we have had to show everyone what they have got to do. It will be so in a work of that sort, because it is entirely new.
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