Evening star., 1935-05-22
TRUCK CONTRACT
IS HELD ILLEGAL
Purchase of $3.50 Vehicles
Draws Fire of Controller
General McCarI.
BY !. A. FOX.

Charging that the specifications
appeared to have been drawn" to
favor the Chevrolet product. Controller
General McCarl has served notice on
the War Department that q contract
for $3.50 trucks already let is illegal
it was disclosed today.
appropriated moneys of the United
States may not lawfully be charged
with payments under such contract, I"
McCarl told the department.
At the office of the quartermaSter
general Of the Army it was said deliv-
cry Of the trucks for use in the Civilian
Conservation Corps already is being
made and doubt was expressed as to
Just what action will be taken about
the payments, which involve, roughly,
s.. 2.s00. 900.
Hits Other Truck Contracts.
At the same time that McCarl took
exception to this truck contract, he
also pointed out that his attention
had been called to the allegation that
specifications for two other items
600 trucks for the National Guard and
$40 ambulances for the c. c. C.-also
were being protested as restrictive" !"
The bids were issued by the purchaser
and contracting officer at Camp Hola-
bird, Md.
The complaint originally was made
by the Fargo Motor Corp, Dodge
sales agency. which said its product
was being excluded. Fargo did not
bid on the trucks.
The 70 t,hi Jrou,
fire was a requirement for a minimum
piston displacement of 2o5 cubic
inches.
"The specifications stated that the
requirement of a minimum piston
displacement of 205 cubic inches was
based on reports covering service
use under required operating condi-
tions." McCarl wrote. However,
there is and has been no showing
to this office as to where, when, by
whom or to whom such reports were
made and on what facts such reports
were based. The reports mentioned
may have been meager or uncon-
sidered or mere conclusions based
upon isolated instances Of unsatis-
factory service in the case Of a very
small number Of trucks of q given
make.
Various Makes Used.
There are large number Of c. c.
c. camps throughout the country and
1t is the understanding of this ONCE
that there are in use in connection
with such camps thousands of trucks
Of various makes. Nothing less than
general facts based upon a compre-
hensive survey and study of the COM
parative performance of the various
makes OF trucks in use would justify
the conclusion that an engine with
less cubic inch displacement would
not be satisfactory"
Reciting that four bids had been
received for the trucks and that Gen.
eral Motors was low, McCarl said the
Fargo Co. apparently did not bid be-
cause 1t was excluded by the specifi-
cations. The General Motors (Chev-
rolet) was $71s.87. The next was 18
per cent higher and the highest more
than 10 per cent higher.
In the present instance" McCsrl
said, "the specifications appeared to
have been drawn without reference to
the actual requirements of the serv-
ice, sufficiently narrow to exclude the
Dodge KH-30, with 201.3 cubic-inch
displacement; sufficiently broad to
admit the Chevrolet, with a piston
displacement of 207 cubic inches, and
sufficiently low to prevent manu-
facturerS and dealers in other makes
OF automobiles from competing on an
equal or nearly equal basis.
Appear to Favor Chevrolet.
I'm other words, the specifications
appeared to have been drawn for the
purpose Of purchasing Chevrolet
trucks without any competition as con-
templated and required by the law"
McCarl also called attention to the
fact that while the C. C. G. trucks, the
900 for the National Guard, and the
ambulances for the c. c. c. were to
perform different duties, yet the pis-
ton displacement required in all three
sets Of specifications is identical with
out regard to disparity in load Ca
pacity required"
It was not certain today If contracts
had been let either for the Guard
trucks or the ambulances, but the un-
derstanding was that they had.
This Is the second fight McCarl has
had with the War Department over
what he has called minute" motor
vehicle specifications which he has
said fatty prevent competition and
can lead to favoritism. On the pre-
vious occasion, he forced the depart
ment to readvertise bids for millions
Of dollars Of equipment under the