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 PROVINCE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
Twenty-fifth Annual Report of the
PURCHASING COMMISSION
JANUARY 1 TO DECEMBER 31
1967
Printed by A. Sutton, Printer to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty
in right of the Province of British Columbia.
1968
  Victoria, B.C., January 19, 1968.
To Major-General the Honourable George Randolph Pearkes,
V.C., C.C, P.C., C.B., D.S.O., M.C., CD.,
Lieutenant-Governor oj the Province oj British Columbia.
May it please Your Honour:
Herewith I beg respectfully to submit the Annual Report of the Purchasing
Commission of the Department of Finance for the period January 1, 1967, to
December 31, 1967.
W. A. C BENNETT,
Minister oj Finance.
 The Honourable W. A.C. Bennett,
Minister oj Finance, Victoria, B.C.
Sir,—We have the honour to submit the Twenty-fifth Annual Report of
the Purchasing Commission, covering the period January 1, 1967, to December
31, 1967.
R. G. McKEE,
Chairman.
A. E. WEBB,
Member.
L. J. WALLACE,
Member.
 Twenty-filth Annual Report of the
Purchasing Commission
January 1 to December 31,1967
GENERAL
As stated in previous Annual Reports, the total purchases under the Act include purchases made by the divisions of those departments with authority to
purchase delegated under section 10 of the Act. Records for those divisions are
therefore included in the table below.
Department and Division
Number of Purchase Orders
Total Value of Purchase Orders
1966
1967
1966
1967
1,320
814
206
3,820
1,590
45,537
2,184
935
194
3,190
1,719
45,455
$3,200,000
10,460   1
64,370
1,205,500
4,670,400
40,106,400
$2,575,000
Provincial Secretary—
8,630
51,680
(c)  Queen's Printer _ 	
Finance—Purchasing Commission—
2,000,540
5,246,380
43,985,810
Totals	
53,287
53,677
$49,257,130
$53,868,040
It will be noted that the over-all increase in the number of purchase orders
was only one-half of 1 per cent, whereas the total value of these purchases increased
by 9 per cent. Although the bulk of this increase in value is due to inflation, the
above table does indicate that the large drop in the number of purchase orders
(7,887) accomplished last year due to more bulk buying was maintained this year.
The relatively high increase (49 per cent) in number of purchase orders by
the Textbook Branch is due primarily to the take-over of purchasing textbooks,
bulletins, etc., for the British Columbia Institute of Technology and the seven
vocational schools.
Although the value of emergency purchase orders is included in the foregoing
figures, the number of emergency purchase orders is not included for the same
reasons given in last year's Report. Actually, the number of emergency purchase
orders in 1967 was 27,394, or an increase of 6 per cent over last year. This increase was almost entirely due to the emergency purchasing of food and supplies
for the worst fire season on record.
STAFF
Last year's Report indicated that the Chairman had submitted to the Civil
Service Commission a report on the purchasing agencies in British Columbia and the
rest of Canada. As a result, an additional Purchasing Agent was approved in
November, 1967, and the salaries of the eight Government buyers were brought
more into line with those paid in industry.
The adjustments in work load of the buyers will not be complete until after
May of 1968, when Purchasing Agent R. B. Ditchburn retires after 34 years of
loyal and efficient Government service, 23 of which were with this Commission.
 BB 6
BRITISH COLUMBIA
BUSINESS MACHINES SERVICE DIVISION
A full description of this Division, its functions and procedures, is given in
chapter 6 of the Purchasing Commission manual and in the 1965 Annual Report
of the Commission. Suffice it to say here that, as the name implies, this Division's
reason for being is to service Government-owned business machines throughout the
Province.
Again, to illustrate how the machine population is growing, two tables are
given below to show that in the calendar year 1967 the increase was 808 machines,
with the largest relative increase in the vocational schools and the Institute of
Technology.
Table 1.—Machines as at December 31, 1966
Type of Machine
Number in
Departmental
Offices
Number in
Seven
Vocational
Schools
Number in
B.C. Institute
of Technology
Total
Number
Typewriters (13.8 per cent electric)  	
Adding-machines and printing-calculators	
Dictating and transcribing machines 	
Miscellaneous equipment—posting, bookkeeping, cash
registers, etc   __ 	
4,298
1,676
1,285
730
398
53
93
274
64
191
26
46
Totals as at December 31,
Percentage increase in 18 months..
1966.
7,989 818
12.2 | 78
I
327
84
4,760
1,920
1,404
1,050
9,134
18
Table 2.—Machines as at December 31,1967
Type of Machine
Number in
Departmental
Offices
Number in
Seven
Vocational
Schools
Number in
B.C. Institute
of Technology
Total
Number
Typewriters (16.2 per cent electric) 	
Adding-machines and printing-calculators..
Dictating and transcribing machines-
Miscellaneous equipment—posting, bookkeeping, cash
registers, etc  _... 	
Totals as at December 31, 1967.. 	
Percentage increase in 12 months  _
4,484
1,815
1,383
761
484
141
105
291
8,444
6
1,021
25
76
321
27
53
477
46
5,045
2,277
1,515
1,105
9,942
9
From the above table, again as a sign of the times, the increase in the purchase
of the more sophisticated machines is evident. Electric typewriters have increased
from 13.8 to 16.2 per cent, which is occasioned by the fact that in 1967 the net
increase of electric machines was 152 and the increase of manual typewriters was
only 133. It will also be noted that there is a 24-per-cent increase in adding-
machines and printing-calculators, or an increase of 457 of these machines, and
that 48 per cent of them were for the technical and vocational schools.
To maintain the above equipment the staff now consists of 1 Supervisor, 2
Mechanics 2, 9 Mechanics 1, and 4 apprentice trainees, a total of 16 men. Of
these, 6 work in the Vancouver area, and it is gratifying to report that with the
co-operation of the Department of Public Works the headquarters for these men
has been moved from the inconvenient basement of the Courthouse to far better
quarters at 501 West 12th Avenue.
Eight of the staff completed very satisfactorily the Victoria Vocational School's
eight months' night-school course in electronics, tailored to the maintenance of sophisticated business machines. Six others completed a two-week course on the
repair of electric typewriters, and two others a one-week course in printing-calculators and adding-machines.
 REPORT OF PURCHASING COMMISSION BB 7
At the request of the Finance Department, the Civil Service Commission instituted a classification study and wage survey for business-machines mechanics. It
has long been recognized in the trade that it takes the better-trained and more-experienced staff members to maintain the more-sophisticated machines. Most of the
commercial firms have instituted two working grades of mechanics to this end. Also
in the case of the Business Machines Service Division, a certain amount of supervision by the senior men is involved on field trips throughout the Province.
It is therefore gratifying to report that starting April 1st two classes of servicemen have been approved. The then complement will be 4 apprentice trainees, 5
Mechanics 1, 4 Mechanics 2, 2 Mechanics 3 (Foremen), and a Supervisor. The
rates of pay will also be revised upwards to bring them more in line with those in
industry.
THE PURCHASING MANUAL
An additional 30 pages were added to the manual as chapter 9. This chapter
details the office procedures. The clerical office of the Commission, which is such
a vital support to the work of the buyers, is divided into four sections, as shown in
the index of chapter 9—namely, the Mail Room, the General Office, the Typing
Section, and the Quotes Room.
Since the procedures as detailed in this chapter are mainly of use to the supervising officers of the Commission in training new staff, and for internal use in systematizing clerical procedures, only a limited number of copies of this chapter were
mimeographed and distributed to the staff of the Commission.
SURPLUS MATERIALS DISPOSAL SECTION
It is the responsibility of the Commission to sell all equipment and property
declared in writing to be surplus by the department concerned. Efforts are, of
course, first made to ensure that such surplus materials cannot be used to advantage
by some other department before advertising same for sale.
The bulk of the work done by the Disposal Section is for the Department of
Highways, as shown in the following breakdown:—
For Department of Highways—
(a) Equipment and scrap   $28,590
(b) Houses and chattels (rights-of-way)   178,160
For other departments   40,380
Total value   $247,130
LANGFORD WAREHOUSE
This warehouse, which is maintained at 2914 Jacklin Road, Victoria, has been
fully described in the last two Reports of the Purchasing Commission.
Although it is operated as a service to all departments on a $ 10 vote (No. 117),
the amount of the approved gross stores purchases was increased this year to $400,-
000. As reported before, the value of the turnover of these non-profit goods sold
from this warehouse in 1965 was $371,893, and in 1966 was $407,829. In 1967
the turnover was $414,480. The increase was due primarily to heavy demand for
forest fire-fighting equipment during the most expensive fire season on record.
Acknowledgment is gratefully made for the hours of voluntary overtime spent
by the small staff at the warehouse to ensure that orders for equipment were
promptly filled and dispatched to fire-lines throughout the Province.
 BB 8
BRITISH COLUMBIA
VANCOUVER OFFICE
The functions of the Vancouver office and staff of eight were fully explained
in the 1965 Report of the Commission and will not be repeated here. Under the
able guidance of Mr. T. L. Vardy, Purchasing Agent 4, that office had another very
successful year.
Printed by A. Sutton, Printer to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty
in right of the Province of British Columbia.
1968
125-368-2179