CAB129-37 — Page 192

250. Plant, equipment and stores had been received in East Africa without proper documentation; this applied particularly to stores purchased from Disposals Boards. It was not until October, 1948, that final prices were available for many of the items received before February 29, 1948, and even then in many cases no detailed breakdown of the agreed aggregate sum for a number of items was provided. A considerable volume of stores still remained to be sorted, housed, binned and recorded. Stores records were fragmentary, and were not kept on a uniform basis. There was no proper documentation of stores issued, nor were all issues priced. The absence of a comprehensive priced Vocabulary created not only difficulties of identification, but also discrepancies in values. It was consequently impossible to keep a financial record of, or to exercise any financial control over, the utilisation of stores. A stocktaking as at February 29, 1948, was undertaken some time after that date, but in the conditions described above, and in view of the short time which could be devoted to it, it was impossible to make it either comprehensive or accurate. All these differences have been taken up in the Accounts presented with this Report, as explained in Chapter 5.

Stores Organisation Built Up

251. It took time to recruit and train the staff, and to provide them with the buildings needed to make the stores organisation efficient. At the end of the year the position was not entirely satisfactory, nevertheless substantial progress had been made.

252. An experienced Chief Supplies Officer was recruited. His staff was organised under three managers-General, Technical, and Petrol Oils and Lubricants. A Chief Buyer in Nairobi directed the purchase of goods in East Africa.

253. There was sufficient covered storage space for all the base stores at Dar-es-Salaam. At Kongwa, although the covered storage space was in- creased, many valuable stores had to be kept under tarpaulins. At Urambo no buildings were available for storage when the Corporation took over and stores were kept in marquees. By the end of the year 19,300 square feet of covered storage space had been provided and a suitable Supplies Office erected. In the Southern Province, the stores were operated by the Con- tractors and held in marquees or in the open. Towards the end of the year some aluminium huts were provided for use as stores.

254. To avoid unnecessary duplication and to escape the danger of creating a bottleneck, it is the policy of the Corporation to decentralise provisioning and storekeeping to the areas of operations, retaining in the ports little mor than a forwarding organisation. This change in policy, and the proper integration of supplies, transportation and accounts, were introduced by stages. During the year all stores were sorted and either binned or stacked, and a system was devised for the recording of all stores receipts and issues and for pricing them. Consequently, at March 31, 1949, a complete and detailed stocktaking and valuation of all stores was made. Pricing, for the purposes of accounting and financial control, necessitated the preparation of a priced Vocabulary. This was undertaken by the London Office as a task of high priority, and in six months a detailed priced Vocabulary covering at least 50,000 items was prepared. The values in the Vocabulary served as the basis for the stocktaking at March 31, 1949, and are currently in use for pricing all receipts and issues.

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