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 PROVINCE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
Twenty-seventh Annual Report of the
PURCHASING COMMISSION
JANUARY 1 TO DECEMBER 31
1969
Printed by A. Sutton, Printer to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty
in right of the Province of British Columbia.
1970
  Victoria, British Columbia, January 21, 1970.
To Colonel the Honourable John R. Nicholson, P.C., O.B.E., Q.C., LL.D.,
Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of 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, 1969, to
December 31, 1969.
W. A. C. BENNETT,
Minister of Finance.
 The Honourable W. A.C. Bennett,
Minister of Finance, Victoria, British Columbia.
Sir,—We have the honour to submit the Twenty-seventh Annual Report of
the Purchasing Commission, covering the period January 1, 1969, to December 31,
1969.
R. G. McKEE,
Chairman.
A. E. WEBB,
Member.
L. J. WALLACE,
Member.
 Twenty-seventh Annual Report of the
Purchasing Commission
January 1 to December 31,1969
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 these divisions are therefore
included in the table below.
Department and Division
Number of Purchase Orders
Total Value of Purchase Orders
1968
1969
1968
1969
2,460
853
172
3,325
44,845
2,414
1,036
183
3,338
47,465
$3,170,000
11,140
55,360
1,899,840
47,268,620
$3,527,330
Provincial Secretary—
14,140
(b) Library Development Commission
(c) Queen's Printer  - 	
Finance—Purchasing Commission—For all de-
60,210
2,206,080
54,663,200
Totals	
51,655
54,436
$52,404,960
$60,470,960
The total value of purchases for the calendar year 1969 is the highest on record.
It will be noted from the above figures that the number of purchase orders increased
over the previous year by 2,786 or 5.4 per cent, whereas the value of purchases increased $8,066,000 or 15.6 per cent. Although inflation accounts for some of this
added cost, the fact remains that 2,786 more purchase orders in 1969, at an average
value of $1,150, account for $3,193,000 of the total increase.
At one public viewing of tenders opened on April 16, 1969, in Vancouver,
trucks and tractors to the value of over $860,000 were involved. As another
example of bulk buying, sealed tenders were requested on one closing date for 3,074
tires for the third-quarter requirements of the Department of Highways. In both
cases exceptionally low prices were obtained.
As usual, the value of emergency purchase orders is included in the above
figures for " Total Value of Purchase Orders," but the number of them, 29,086 for
1969, is not, as their total value is less than 5 per cent, hence to include them would
give a distorted picture of the average value of purchase orders. Actually, there
were 12.7 per cent more emergency purchase orders than last year because of the
severe fire season of 1969.
STAFF
There were in all 60 permanent employees on the staff of the Commission in
1969, including the Chairman, 1 Administrative Officer Grade 2, 8 purchasing
agents, 13 business machines mechanics, 35 clerical, and 2 warehousemen at the
Langford Warehouse.
In addition to the 13 business machines mechanics shown above, there was one
Mechanic Grade 1 and one mechanic trainee paid for by the Department of Education for the maintenance of Vocational School equipment, and one mechanic trainee
is included temporarily as a clerk among the 35 clerks of the Commission staff.
5
 W 6
BRITISH COLUMBIA
BUSINESS MACHINES SERVICE DIVISION
This Division was set up 27 years ago to service the Government-owned business machines throughout the Province. At that time the Division was responsible
for the maintenance of 1,032 machines, whereas the following table shows that the
present total is 11,717. The bulk of this equipment is serviced by the staff, but, as
explained in section 6.25 of the Purchasing Commission Manual, a small percentage
of custom-made or specialized equipment is serviced on a contract basis by the
firms concerned.
Again, to illustrate how the machine population is growing, two tables are given
below to show that in the calendar year 1969 the increase was 10 per cent or
1,079 machines.
Table 1.—Machines as at December 31,1968
Type of Machine
Number in
Departmental
Offices
Number in
Vocational
Schools
Number in
B.C. Institute
of Technology
Total
Number
Typewriters (22.5 per cent electric) 	
Adding-machines and printing-calculators 	
Dictating and transcribing machines —- 	
Miscellaneous equipment—posting, bookkeeping, cash
registers, etc _	
Totals as at December 31,1968	
Percentage increase in 12 months -
4,652
1,911
1,457
805
8,825
4.5
557
202
138
319
1,216
19
91
351
29
597
25
5,300
2,464
1,624
1,250
10,638
7
Table 2.—Machines as at December 31,1969
Type of Machine
Number in
Departmental
Offices
Number in
Vocational
Schools
Number in
B.C. Institute
of Technology
Total
Number
Typewriters (24.52 per cent electric)	
Adding-machines and printing-calculators	
Dictation/Transcription equipment and tape recorders   	
Miscellaneous equipment—posting, bookkeeping, cash
registers, etc -  	
Totals as at December 31, 1969  	
Percentage increase in 12 months- - — 	
4,950
2,127
1,742
948
604
238
148
328
9,767
10.7
1,318
8.3
94
360
51
127
632
5.8
5,648
2,725
1,941
1,403
11,717
10.1
From the above tables, and again as a sign of the times, the increase of the
more sophisticated equipment is evident; for instance, the percentage increase of
electric typewriters was from 16.2 per cent to 22.5 per cent. Actually, the net
increase in these machines was 212 electric versus 136 manual. In 1969 the average
cost of an electric typewriter was $391 and of a manual typewriter $137.
Similarly, of the increase of 261 adding-machines and calculators, the percentage of the more expensive calculators is increasing each year. For instance,
in 1969 the following calculators were purchased: 47 rotary calculators at an average cost of $238; 37 printing-calculators at an average cost of $514; 20 electronic
calculators at an average cost of $1,292.
It is interesting to note that the largest percentage increase in business machines
was in departmental offices, as most of the existing vocational schools and the British
Columbia Institute of Technology are now equipped with business machines.
As a result of this increase in machine population there is included in the
estimates of this Commission for next year one Stockman Grade 1 to store, pack,
and ship equipment sent in to the Victoria shop for repairs.
 REPORT OF PURCHASING COMMISSION
W 7
THE PURCHASING MANUAL
Section 4.6 of the manual was revised and brought up to date this year. This
section is the stock catalogue of the Langford Warehouse, where some 973 catalogued items are stocked.
In view of the fact that the purchasing agent formerly stationed at Deas Dock
was transferred to the Vancouver office of this Commission, purchasing for the
British Columbia Ferries Division of the Department of Highways will be carried
on as for other Government departments and divisions, hence the entire chapter 8,
entitled " British Columbia Ferry Authority Purchasing," has been discarded.
THE VANCOUVER OFFICE
The functions of the Vancouver office of the Purchasing Commission are fully
explained in chapter 5 of the manual. Suffice it to say here that the staff of eight
under the able guidance of Mr. T. L. Vardy, Purchasing Agent 4, again had a
successful year.
Now that the British Columbia Ferry Authority has become a Division of the
Department of Highways, approval was secured last December to transfer the purchasing agent position at Deas Dock to the Vancouver office of this Commission.
THE 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 equipment cannot be used to advantage by some other department before advertising same for sale. The functions
of this section are fully described in chapter 7 of the Purchasing Manual.
Again the bulk of the work done by the Disposal Section was for the Department of Highways, as shown in the following breakdown:—
For department of Highways—
(a) Equipment and scrap     $49,960
(b) Houses and chattels (rights-of-way)  _    114,250
For other departments       37,690
Total value.
$201,900
In connection with the disposal of right-of-way buildings in the Lower Mainland area, it is with regret that the retirement of Mr. J. P. Hundley is reported.
For 14 years Mr. Hundley was most zealous and efficient in the custodial care and
in the supervision of the sale of all buildings and chattels in that area.
LANGFORD WAREHOUSE
The functions of this warehouse are fully described in chapter 7 of the Purchasing Manual.
It is operated as a service to all departments on a $10 vote on approved gross
stores purchases of $400,000. The turnover in 1968 was $411,600 and in 1969,
$479,300. The increase is explained by the severe fire season of 1969 and the
necessary extra purchases of fire-fighting equipment.
CONCLUSION
The Commission again gratefully acknowledges the specialized purchasing done
under delegated authority by the Queen's Printer, the Director of the Textbook
Branch, the Provincial Librarian and Archivist, and the Superintendent of the
Library Development Commission.
 Printed by A. Sutton, Printer to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty
in right of the Province of British Columbia.
1970
180-170-1156