MR. HAVNBURY ( Preston)asked the Surveyor General of the Ordnance, Whether the Government will consent to the issue of an annual Return showing what contracts were during the past year thrown open to public competition, and what contracts wore offered to only a limited number of firms—namely, those on the selected lists of the Director of Contracts, whether, in such Return, he will also publish the names of the firms in each of such lists, and state which of such firms received contracts, which tendered and did not receive contracts, and which sent in no tender during the year included in the Return; and, whether he will take care that no firm shall continue) upon any such list who have for some time ceased to tender, and who may use the fact of being on such list as contractors to the British Army mainly as an advertisement for procuring other contracts elsewhere?
§ THE SURVEYOR GENERAL (Mr. NORTHCOTE) (Exeter)The detailed Return asked for would involve great labour, and, so far as can be seen, would answer no correspondingly useful purpose. The average number of tenders issued yearly from the "War Office during the last five years has been 15,667, to which 9,313 returns with quotations of prices have been received, or 59 per cent. As regards the range of competition, Commissariat and Engineer contracts, and the more important contracts for stores and clothing, are, as a rule, given by public or advertised competition. As regards contracts which are offered to a restricted list of firms, care is taken that those firms who cease to tender are, after a year, removed from the list. The list is constantly under revision, and each failure to tender in reply to an invitation is noted against the manufacturer.