§ MR. HENNIKER HEATON (Canterbury)asked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether the contract for the supply of judicial stamps for India expires in the course of the next few months; whether there is any truth in the report that the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, acting for the Secretary of State, are desirous of continuing the employment of the present contractors without any competition; and whether, some months since, the Secretary of State decided upon calling for tenders for the supply of these judicial stamps; and, if so, what is the cause of the delay in sending out the conditions of tenders, and does it in any way arise out of any action on the part of the Inland Revenue or their Comptroller of Stamps?
§ MR. KING (Hull, Central)also asked, Whether hitherto it has always been the practice of the Director General of Stores for India to send out all invitations to tender for Indian stamps (as in the case of all other articles) and to receive such tenders to be finally decided upon by the Stores Committee of the Council; whether, in the case of the judicial stamps, for which the contract is about to expire, this practice has been departed from, and the invitations sent out by the Commissioners of Inland Revenue on the part of the Secretary of State; whether the tenders to be submitted are to be decided upon by the Commissioners of Inland Revenue; whether it is intended by 1838 the Secretary of State that the Stores Committee and the Director General shall in future abdicate their functions in the matter of stamps in favour of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue and their officers; and, whether, in the matter of contracts, anything more is required from the officers of the Inland Revenue Department as against the salaries paid them by the Indian Office for the general supervision of the manufacture, than that their technical knowledge shall be at the disposal of the Stores' Committee and the Director General, so as to enable them to arrive at a proper decision upon purely technical points?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE (Sir JOHN GORST) (Chatham)The contract for judicial stamps for India expires in a short time, and the further supply will be open to competition among a limited number of selected firms. In 1886 the late Secretary of State made an arrangement with the Board of Inland Revenue, by which the latter were to act as his agents in, among other things, the renewal of such contracts for the supply of stamps as might expire from time to time. It is in pursuance of this arrangement that invitations to tender for the supply of judicial stamps for India have, since the Question was placed on the Paper, been sent out by the Commissioners of Inland Revenue. The Board, however, acting in this matter as the agents of the Secretary of State, will take no step of importance without consulting him.