Evening star., 1941-08-03

o. P. M. has the power to approve
or veto the contracts, but 1t can
not take part In the negotiations
unless the Army or Navy asks its
advice and assistance.
If the contracts are not given
to all the producers, large and small,
who should have them, or If the
producers are not required to speed
production to the limit, the Army
and Navy make the initial error,
but the contract is not awarded
until o. P. NJ approves it.
Some leaders in and out of Con-
gress say one agency should have
sole responsibility for purchasing.
But until that is done, their fore
most concern Is to make the present
system work.
o. P. M. officials have been re-
luctant to make any public criti-
cism Of the work of the Army and
Navy procurement agencies, sp-
preciating the enormous difficulty
of their task and their really re-
markable accomplishments. Start
ing with a tiny army and almost
no military equipment a year ago,
they already have made the mill
tary establishment stronger than
it ever has been in peacetime
Nevertheless, say men who are in
a position to know, the Army is
giving its contractors too much
time to complete their orders. To
get maximum production. they say,
contracts must be so drawn that
in order to complete orders on
schedule, manufacturers would have
to use two or three shifts of work
ers where only one or two are used
now. They would have to sub
contract large portions of their
orders, which they now are filling
entirely in their own plants.
Producers Have Answer.
Often when o. P. M. has urged
certain large producers to farm Out
more of their work to small indus
tries which are seeking orders, the
big fellows reply, why should We:
We are we'll able TO complete oul
orders in plenty of time without
| that"
Some Army contracts call for de-
livery in l943 or later, says one off.
cial, remarking, Guns to be delivered
in l943 are no guns at all, so far as
the present program is concerned.
When civilian officials have criti-
cized this leisurely procedure, they
say, Army officials explained thai
they were endeavoring to synchro.
nize deliveries, securing the ma.
terials no faster than they were
needed.
I'VE don't need the bullets before
We get the guns" one man quoted
an Army officer as remarking.
The answer TO that" said thu
civilian, is to get the guns faster
But 1 suppose the Army then woulo
reply, We don't need the guns unit
we get the bullets and so on"
Time Limits on Contracts.
Some effort is being made, how.
ever, to shorten the time limits or
many of the original contracts. Blu
under present law, this can be done
only to a limited extent. The Law
permits the services to renegotiats
contracts in that way when they car
obtain greater speed in performance
and this is being done in many in
stances.
The defense program was a $50.
600, 100000 project in March, anc
appropriations authorized or pend,
ing have increased it to $50 900 .O00..
600. Drastic revision of schedule,
was necessary to meet the new pro-
duction demands.
But still the law does not permit
the services to renegotiate contracts
Tor the express purpose of. stipulat-
ing that the contractor do more
subcontracting, While subcontract.
ing distributes the work amonp