( 197 )
Q. Hon. A. LISTER.-Would these Contractors have any difficulty in getting people outside the Public Works Department to make out their bills for them?
A.--I think so, because in making out these bills it requires a man who knows the technical names.
Q.-Quite so. Now these Contractors complain a good deal of delay in the pay- ment of their bills. They say their bills are sometimes not paid at all promptly. One of them says he has been kept waiting eight, nine, and ten months, and sometimes as much as a year. Do you know why it is they are kept waiting? Why are the bills kept back?
A. That I don't know.
Q.-Can you tell us in whose hands they are kept back. The Overseer first initials the bills, then Mr. BOWDLER, then they seem to get into the hands of Mr. PRICE. NOW where does the delay take place?
Q.-Hon. F. B. JOHNSON.-Do they pass through your hands?
A. Yes.
Q.-Here, there is this bill (produced) signed by Mr. BOWDLER on the 20th Sep- tember and not paid till the 20th November. How long does it stop in your office?
·
A. This bill stayed in my office 20 days.
Q.—Why did it stay there 20 days?
A.-Because it is the rule for the Surveyor General to pass bills once a month, that is on the 10th of each month.
Q.-Does it ever stop in your office for more than a month?
A.-No.
Q.-Hon. A. LISTER.-That is, small bills, I suppose
A.-No, all bills.
Q.-But there are some you pass at once?
A.-They are contract bills; I am speaking of measured work and small bills.
Q.-But is a bill not kept waiting also because you have not requisitioned for sufficient money?
A.-Sometimes we are kept waiting for that.
Q.-You have no money?
A.-Sometimes no money and sometimes no authority.
Q.-Is not a bill kept waiting sometimes because a work has cost more than it was estimated, and for that reason there is not sufficient money?
A.-I don't know any case of that sort.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.