Inefficient Government Methods

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17109, 2 April 1921, Page 8

Inefficient Government Methods

Borne weeks ago it was elated, on behalf of the Government, that'in future certain Government Departments would present their, accounts in a manner similar to the ordinary methods of business houses. The institution of this reform means that it will be compara-. tively easy for any person capable' of understanding a balance-sheet to learn the result of a Department's operations for tho year. The Government should! not, however, weary in well-doing; having decided that the trading Departments' books are. to be kent in a ;busiuesslike way, it might well go a step further and compel them all to conduct their work on businesslike lines. Everyone who has dealings witfe various Departments knows of tho waste of time, the antiquated methods, in soma «ases thfc ojver-sta fling tl:«t militate against economy and efficiency. Take, for instance, tho Customs office. Any business man will confirm the contention that a great deal of time could'be saved by . altering the present rrime entry form which is used for all importations. Tho width of this form only allows for four cash columns, whereas there should be at least seven, to allow of a column for each rate of duty. Asil is, ah importer finds, after making- a few entries on tho form, that all the columns have been used, and he must- perforce rule off tho form, add up the ngures, add 10 per cent, to each column, and work out and extend the various amounts of duty. He must then fill in a receipt form at the foot 'of the entr+, and also «m elaborate declaration on the back. He may have five hundred linos of goods, for which to pass entries, and because cf this stupid arrangement ■ he must go through this process, perhaps, a dozd;i times, whereas once should suffice. If sufficient columns were provided/ and the totals carried forward from sheet toi

sheet, with one receipt form and one declaration on the final sheet, the reduction in work would be very considerable, for these forms are checked by at least four different clerks. Probably the most cumbersome and inefficient part of the whole Government system is the way in which payments are made. A business firm paying accounts awaits a monthly statement, attache* invoices thereto, and draws a cheque. Not t>o the Government! A Department may have half a dozen different debus from a firm for goods supplied during the montih, and tho probability js that half a dozen cheques will be drawn jn settlement. Apparently there is no record kept of payments except in "Wellington. That is to say, an officer passes an account, it is sent to Wellington for payment, and that is the last he sees of it, the result being that it is an easy matter to pass an account a second time, especially as there is often great delay in payments, thus causing merchants to render their accounts a second time. An incident which happened in Christ-church some time ago illustrates what may happen' under this arrangement. Goods were supplied to a Department and an account sent in. Tho goods were returned, and a credit note was sent to the Department, but in the meantime the voucher had been sent to Wellington, and in due course a cheque arrived. Tho local office, on being informed, asked that the cheque should not be returned fn the moantime, but that a copy of tho invoice- should be sent, in order that the matter mijdit be looked into. To the surprise of the merchant, he received a. second cheque a few weelc3 later! The post office is probably the best-managed of the Departments, and the staff is the hardest worked, but there is room for improvement in its methods. The telephone account, with with every telephone subscriber is familiar, is responsible for work which should be performed in one operation being done twice, both sides containing tho same information.

Whilo seeking for means to effect economies, the Government should be on the look Tout for opportunities of increasing revenue from sources which ■will not be a burden on the public. An excellent way of doing this would be to allow depositors. in the Post Office Savings Bank to operate on their accounts by cheque. This privilege would increase the business by leaps and bounds, and 'banking is a profitable business. Mr-H. E. Holland, M.P., stated recently that now was the supremo moment for the establishment of a State Bank.' If ho meant a bank in the ordinary sense of the term, the present is probably the very \ worst time imaginable. .The. extension of the •scope of the Post Office Savings Bank in the direction suggested would, however, offer no difficulties. The staff is there, and, would only need increasing, and the whole machinery is in operation. All the accounts ere in credit, and there is no need for any particular experience or ability in ueaTing with them, because there are no overdrafts. It--would probably be necessary to limit depositors to, say, a book of 'twentyfour cheque's per month for a while, in order that the business should not outpace .the capacity of the staff. The extension of the Savings Bank as indicated would'be of great assistance to the 'Government, and a boon to the public. The Government would also draw quite a large revenue from the stamp duty on cheques, of which hundreds of thousands would be drawn during the year. In regard to cheques the man in the street probably has very little ''idea of the ritual to bo gone through in getting a book of cheques stamped by v the ' Stamp Department. First it is necessary to fill in a requisition in duplicate, foolscap' size, the dutv is then paid in cash—cheques are not accepted. A receipt is issued, and the cheque book has then to be posted to Wellington. Some weeks later it is returned, plus another receipt, and one of the requisition fqrms. The present financial condition of the Dominion demands increased'production, reduced taxation, and the exercise of public and private economy The Government rightlyurges the people to economise, but to be consistent it must set its own house in order, by making the Public ■ Service as efficient as possible. This will never be cd ias long as it sticks to the red-iape methods, of which those to which we have referred form only a small proportion. We honestly believe that the number of hours spent by Government employees in filling v? unnecessary returns of every conceivable kfnd amounts in the aggregate to' a loss in working days which would stagger even the permanent heads of departments r£ it could be shown to them. And this is only one direction in which time, and money, are wasted. Any competent, business could find sa dozen others, and, what L>.- more, could show how they cot.ld bo avoided.