THE PUBLIC SERVICE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1537, 5 September 1912, Page 6

THE PUBLIC SERVICE.

COMISSION'S REPORT.

THE FRONT DOOR AND THE BACK. POLITICAL INFLUENCE. CIVIL SERVICE BOARD FAVOURED. - SALARIES AND APPOINTMENTS. OTHER IMPORTANT RECOMMENDATIONS.

The' report of the Public Service Commission was* presented to the House of Representatives last evening by the Primo Minister. It is a volume.of 78 foolscap pages, consisting entirely of the observations and recommendations.of the Commission. .: / The members of the Commission were . Messrs.. W. D. limit' (chairman), Jas. Macintosh, and. Peter Barr. Mr. Thos. Firilays'oh retired, and. at .the request of the Commission no, appointment was made in his'place. The Commission commenced its work on May 31, and completed it on August 24. ■• It made official inspections of 45 Deportments and', examined 133 witnesses, representing -118 officers. Among the witnesses were representatives of the New Zealand Civil Service.Association, in Wellington and Christchurcb, claiming to represent about 2500 members. In addition to the evidence, over JO written statements were received. Many Defects Discovered. Owing to tho shortness of the time at its disposal, the Commission confined its investigations to the general principles upon which the business of the country is ' conducted. "We found many things which we consider we can say definitely are defects in the system, and in these cases .ivc have tried to recommend definite remedies," the Commission states. "We have also found many other points, that we consider weak spots in the organisation or working methods, but into' which wo have not had.the time to inquire closely enough to speak decidedly. In.these cases we.are stating our views as far as wo 'have been able to form them, and are indicating the steps .that we think BTe necessary to make fuller inquiries into them in order to arrive at the true position." Control. At the head of the whole organisation, the report continues, stands the Cabinet of the day, which, except for tho control exercised by the Treasury and Audit De.is the only thing holding tlio whole business together, but as each Department is under a separate Minister, there is.very often little .unity of control. Every.main Department and many of the minor ones are separate concerns, each one running on its own account, entirely independently of the others. There is a great tendency for each Department to magnify and glorify itself. The secretary for each of the main Departments desires to make his Department an important one, because it means a more important position for himself. Ho is assisted in this way by all tho officers of his Department, for raising tho status of tho fecretary.means raising the status of all tho.principal offioers under him. The head of every minor Department wishes to magnify-his office in order that he may break free from the leading strings of- the necre.ta.ry of tho Department under which he is grouped. Each Minister, too, likes to magnify, the importance of the Depart ments under him as it raises his own status and importance in the eyes of the country. This is only human nature, but in business life the tendency to magnify one's position is held in check by the increasing demands of the profit ait'd loss account, and the only way a man in business can magnify his office is by swelling the balance to the credit of this account. To do this in tho face of the competition usually met with in business life, the strictest economy and efficiency have to be observed. With the exception of a few trading Departments, the Government officers are not in the same position. They have no profit and loss account to faco at the end' of tho year, and nothing to hold them in check except the head of the wholo organisation. No Unity in Working. Every main Department and even every minor Department tries to run its affairs as ' a distinct and separate concern instead of each being a branch of one largo business. It is more difficult to make transfers between two different Government Departments than it is between two entirely separate businesses. An officer who wishes to transfer from one Department to another has to obtain the content of the heads of both Departments. If he,is a .smart officer the head of his Department in many cases withholds consent and thus blocks a man of ability from obtaining promotion. Many Departmental heads think consent is given only when a'man is an inferior worker and they therefore look with suspicion on all who are permitted to transfer. Tho result is "that good men often find themeolves fixtures without, opportunity in some small Department, with their promotion blocked localise of their ability, while other Departments where the work is rapidly increasing, find a great difficulty in getting suitable men. In many Departments there is a tendency to keep the officers, especially a number of the younger men, lied year after year at "the. one. class- of work, instond of adonting tho usual business practice of putting them through as many different classes' of work as possible so that they do not get the all-round training that should be easily obtainable in a large concern liko tho Public Service.

"Back-Door" Appointments. Keviewing the methods of appointment to the Public Service from 18G6, the Coramission rlrnls with the state of affairs produced by the Public Service Classification and Superannuation Act of 1.107. Under this Act all officers who had been employed as temporary hands were made permanent members of the Public Service if they had been employed continuously for not less than five years, and those who subsequently completed five years' service also became permanent 'members. The total number of temporary hands who were thus brought in, as the officers of the Service call it, "by the back-door," I 'was.o37, practically one-third of the total number of officers at (ho time. The«e officers were placed on exactly the same footing as those who came, in after passing the Junior Civil Service examination or "by the front door," but were given the advantage that they could rise to any position without passing any examination. This system was looked upon by the" regular members of the staff as a great grievance and the Commission thought fhat their, attitude was justified,Had. a system of making all promotions from within the Service been in operation it would havo resulted in a vast improvement in the efficiency of the staff and there would not be the discontent that undoubtedly prevails in the Service. Promotions and Salaries. Thero is no uniform system throughout the service of making promotions and increases in salaries, and tlio result of the existing methods of recommendations by heads of -Departments is that good, bad RTid indifferent officers get advances at much tho same rato. Difference in tho point of view of Ministers is responsible lor differences in tho increases, and after several years there Tesults a considerable difference between the pay of officers in one Department and those doing similar work in another. Thcso anomalies create ft considerable amount, of dissatisfaction.- Merit' does not. count a- it should. The passing of examinations does n'ot.'carry we'ght nor bring th° promotion that might reasonably be expected, It is

quite a common occurrence to find young men in the servico studying for law, accountancy, or other examinations, not with the object of getting on in the service, but with the object of obtaining degrees that will enable them to get out of it. Tho lack of uniformity in salaries causes considerable dissatisfaction amongst the officers. In many cases tho salary has no relationship to the work being done, for in tho lower grades of. the service tho work is generally given to those who have the capacity to do it regardless of the pay received. The higher salary is the result of long service, and not merit, and the man doing tho responsible work at a low- salary is getting tho lower salary,on account of short service. The Commission can hardly say that the salaries as a whole are either too high, or too low, but they badly need adjusting. The men should be paid for the work. they do, and not for the time they have been in the service. Cadois and Heads. It seems necessary that an increase in the salaries payable to those entering the service should bo made. The Commission urges, however, that if merit were moro recognised, promotions kept entirely for those within the service, and the ultimate prizes in the service increased, young fellows of ability would join the service and remain in it much • more readily than they do now. The heads of the main Departments are inadequately paid. An increase to these responsible heads of 25 per cent, or'3o per cent, would be of incalculable, benefit to the service as a whole. The pay of subsidiary officers is not, in many cases in accordance with, the value of the work done. The Commission considers that an adjustment of these anomalies in salaries would result in a saving to the country of a very considerable sum yearly, and not only so, but greater efficiency would follow, and more engendered, a spirit of esprit de corps would be awakened, the whole service would become more alive and alert, because more hopeful, and the result generally beneficial to the public and the service alike.

Classification. During .its' investigations, the. Commission came across very few officers who had a good word to say for the classification scheme as it now exists. The general opinion on the way in which the classification schemes of the Railways and Post' and Telegraph Department work out in practice was found to be strongly against them. Evidence went to show that both schemes induced promotion by seniority rather than promotion by merit. Promotion by merit is looked upon as the only means of maintaining a high standard of efficiency in the service. REFORM PROPOSALS. THE FIEST ESSENTIAL-AN EFFICIENT HEAD. Turning from a review of the service as it exists the Commission proceeds to set out the changes which it considers necessary to be made in the • organisation of the service in order to produce tho. best results. "Tho object to bo aimed at," the report continues, "in a servico which- is conducting the business of the country just the same as that to be aimed at in' a service that, is conducting any other business—thorough efficiency combined with economy. To secure this it is necessary to have first an efficient head controlling the wholo service, and under this head an efficient and contented staff, proud of tho servico to which they belong, and intent on rising in it. Without these two things thorough efficiency cannot bo obtained, and without efficiency it is hopeless to think of economy. "Taking the head first: it is to our mind essential that there should bo one controlling head for ■ the whole business of the country, to hold the whole service together, and mako it work as ono welloiled and efficient machine. In the past, the only head of the service has been the Cabinet of tho day. AVo are quite satisfied that a Cabinet is not, and never can be, an efficient controlling business head. A Cabinet which is in touch with Parliament, and through Parliament with- the people, can settle the broad policy lines upon which) the people of the country demand that the business, of the country is to be conducted, and they are undoubtedly tho best body in sight to conduct this part of the business; but while they can .settle the policy, they are not fitted to attend to the, detail of the general organisation and working methods of the staff, engagements, promotions, transfers, and handling of tho officers generally. This is tho work of experts trained in the business of the country, and in business methods generally, and this work cannot be attended to efficiently by Ministers, who, in most cases, have not had the necessary previous training for tho administrative work which is entailed.

Ministers Enmeshed in Details. "At the present time heads of Departments have to refer all sorts of minor details to the Ministers in charge of their particular Departments. This not only wastes the time and hampers tho operations of the Department itself, but it takes up the time of Ministers attending to a mass of detail which, in many cases, they can know very little about, and which would bo done very much better if (hey were relieved of them altogether, and the responsibility thrown on to someone else. We think we can safely say that very few managers of large businesses, even when they have had their lives' training in 'the business, would attempt to cope -with tho mass of detail with which a Minister in charge of a Department, who has had any lengthytraining with that particular Department, attempts to deal. Ministers should bo free of all this detail, and have time to consider tho broad policy lines on which the business of the country is to be conducted, leaving the general management and the carrying-out of the policy in other hands." A Board of Management. Management is named as the most important matter of all. The commission thinks that a Board of Management should bo set up, which would be the. managing head of the whole Government service. It suggests that the board should be composed of three men, one of whom, and he the ablest man that could bo obtained therein, should be drawn from the service. This position on the board should be the prize position in the whole Public Service, and carry'a higher salary than any other, with the possible exception of that of the General Manager of Railways. The two other members of the board should Ik chosen from ontside, and they should be men of wide business experience who have had training in large organisations, and accustomed lo the handling of a large stall'. One of these two should lie chairman of the board. This board would therefore have as its members two men of thorough business training, chosen for their organising ability, and one from the Public Service, who would know its requirements, and be thoroughly familiar with all its details, and who would possess a good working knowledjo of tho personnel of it 3 officers. The .members of the

board should give their whole time In their work, and have n<i other duties. The. Hoard of Management, the f'nnimNsion thinks, should be under Cabinet and mil responsible to I'arlianionl only, and its actions should lie subject to review bv Cabinet. A silicic -Minister should not bo'ablo to interfere with the notions of the board. The Commission considers that the setting up of n board responsible to Parliament only would be equivalent to setting up dual control which it thinks would be fatal. Among the first duties of the board, it is said, should be to: (a) Block all "buck doors" of entrance to the I'ublic Service; (b) arrange that all promotions should be made from within the Service; and (c) arrange for free transfer of officers between the' .Departments. It is recommended I hat, in the making of appointments the "expert" clauses should bo very sparingly used, and no one .should be appointed unless it is impossible to train him in the Service, itself. Shorthand-writers and typists should be trained in the Service. This is done in manv largo business establishments, nnd should be easily done'in a large service like the Government. Service. Shorthandwriters and typists would then, be eligiblo for promotion to any position. There are at present 539 officers in the Service who entered under the "export" clauses of the various Acts, and of these 51 came in as shorthand-writers and typists. Free transfers between the Departments should be permitted. When transfers arc being considered groat consideration should be given to the. desire of any head of a Department to obtain an officer from another Department, provided it is supported by the wish of that particular officer to make the. change. Little consideration, should bo given to the head of the Department who is losing the officer. Valuation of Positions. The Commission recommends that with a view to securing that all officers should be properly paid and that the Statoshould get proper service for its pay, the service should be divided into four divisions, as undor :— Division I would consist of the clerical, surveying, and engineering start; and, in fact, of all those officers now in these positions, and those who would in future, under tho plan that wc propose, join as cadets and lie trained for thoir various positions within the- service.

Division II would be tho "expert" division. The officers would be appointed under the "expert" clauses of the. Civil Service Act, and should, as wo have explained, be only appointed for particular work, remaining in that particular work; and the division should not include any class of officer .who can be trained within the service. '

Division 111 would be the administrative division. This would be a small division, and would merely consist or" heads of Departments and any others whose work, and position the board considered sufficiently responsible to put in this division. All the officers in this division would be ofScers who had been promoted from the ranks of Division I, excepting only thoso administrative appointments requiring special expert or technical knowledge, .the-officers for which would be drawn from Divisions II or, IV.

Division IV would be a general division, and would include all officers of tbo Public Service not included in any of the other three- divisions—police, prisons, .and mental hospital warders, a large proportion of the Government printing staff, messengers, a portion of the Defence Department, and others of a like nature.

A careful and systematical valuation of the positions in every Department would then have to he made and shown under the separate, divisions. 'It is suggested that the best method of doing this" would be to appoint a ipermanent committee, say, of three in each Department. Apportioninn Salaries. A fair value having been fixed' for all positions, the positions should then be put into classes. The following classes are suggested for Divisions I, 11, and Mini- Maxi- Annual Class. mum. mum. increments. 1 70 130 * of £\$ 2 140 180 4 of JCIO . 3 190 220 ." of .£lO i 230 270 4 of .£lO . 5' 2SO 320 4 of .£lO ' G 330 370 1 of ,ClO 7 3SO 4SO 4 of .£2O S -ISO COO 4 of £W 9 • G2 ° m (iofio 10 Special classification of any positions over' ,£SOO per annum. "Each particular position would then be set in a class. For instance," the Commissioners remark, "a position, say, in Clns.? 4 would mean that tho man entering it would start at a salary of .£230 and go on by four annual increments of .£lO each to a salary of X'27o, providing he remains in that class, and he would there wait until he got into a higher class. It it was thought that in any particular work a'man improved in it by length of service more than the difference between tho maximum cf one class and the minimum of the next class, two classes could be put against it. For instance, if 4 and 5 were written against any ono position, it would mean that the man starting in it would get .£230, and if lis continued in that position long enough he would go up by nine annual increments of .£lO each to J;320; but we think that probably most positions would be met by .one class." Promotions. • Promotions from one class to another should be'entirely by merit. The point is not whether a senior man is capable of performing the duties of the office satisfactorily, but whether a junior officer can perform them better. No influence, political or otherwise, no social considerations, nothing but efficiency, should bo allowed to affect the selection and promotion of officers from one class to another. They should be judged on their work alone. Any attempts to uso influence'or pressure of any kind in connection with promotions should be not listened to, and treated as serious offences.

it is suggested that the bar to positions carrying a salary beyond .£2OO a year unless officers pass the Senior Civil Service examination, or its equivalent, should be removed. ■ The only) compulsory examination should be the Junior Civil Service examination on entering, and after thatfuture promotion should be deckled in the manner indicated. Appeals. All officers in the service should iiavo the right to appeal direct to Ihe Board of Management by letter, staling fully the grounds of their appeal, should they think that their positions are wrongly valued or that they are ill treated in any way. The. board would give these appeals their consideration, and their decision would in all cases be final, and it should not be necessary for the board to summon those appealing to appear before them or to get any other evidence. The commission is very strongly of opinion that an outside appeal board that, can override the management is a decidvu mistake. Female Officers. "Another matter that will require- a very great deal of consideration in the valuation of positions is the question of the female officer. There are a. number of these, in Hie service as shorthand writers and typists, and also as clerks. It would not do, we think, to rank them equally with male officers in the matter of salaries. It is doubtless true that some women would excel many men in capacity for work, but, taking them on the average, while they are often good, steady workers, they cannot stand the strain of a rush or pressure of work in the same way that mem can, and we think, therefore, that female officers should be paid at a reduced rate. They could be given a male officer's pay less a certain percentage. Then, again, female officers, as a rule, do not readily take responsibility in the samo way that men do; but this would, of course, bo met when promotions were being made. It would probably be found that they would not rise so" high in the service as male officers. Except, perlinps, in exceptional cases, the bulk of them would remain permanently in the lower classes of the service. The matter, however, is one for consideration by the Board of Management, and lor adjustment from time to time, ' as experience prove* their capacity for the work to be tlmio in tho service, as compared with the capacity of the male officers." Detailed recommendations are made for the better regulation of such matters as travelling allowances and overtime, and for the belter individual organisation of the various departments. Public Accounts. Aft«>.r criticising th» methods bv which Government accounts are kept, the Coin-

missioners say:—"lt is clear to us— (1) That there is no reason why, even with the present system, (he accounts should not bo very much reduced in volume. . . (■>) That the order in which the various accounts appear, the fact that the connection helwcn one account and another is seldom indicated, the numerous translers, ami especially the discrepancies between statements that deal with the'same transactions, render them exceedingly coufus,iu<* not only to the ordinary reader, but. even to members of Parliament and ol the service, who have to refer to them for information; ..,;,, , (3 The very important fact that, voluminous as they are, the accounts are simplv records of cash transactions and statemeats of balances in different forms, tnat give a very incomplete and misleading impression of the progress or position at any given date of tho finances ot the Commit is not a little surprising to find that the form of accounts now in use has been so practicallv from the foundation or the colony, and'we have not infrequently in our investigations, when asking for explanations of, or reasons for, certain methods of returns, been met with tin? answer, 'Well, it has always been so, That is scarcely a sufficient reason, and lias long been abandoned under the pressure of competition in business. Public Works; A Weak Spot. Discussing tho Public Works Deportment, tho Commissioners state:— The weak spots in tho organisation, to our mind, arc— . (a) Tho continual referring ot small details to tho Minister for Public Works, and to Cabinet; ' (b) The necessity for constantly referring small matters from the district offices to tho head office; and (c) Tho want of touch between tho cnginoer-in-chief and his subordinate engineers. Eefcrring to the weak spot (a) tile report is as follows:— The continual referring of small details to the Minister for Public Works and to Cabinet: All sorts of minor details have to be referred by the Under-Secre-tary to tho Minister, and often by the latter to Cabinet. Por instance, although the various works and the expenditure in connection with same have been authorised by Parliament under the appropriations for the. year, tho Under-Secretary has no power to authorise the expenditure of any money at all until he has got the approval of the Minister, and it has become the practice to limit the -Minister's approval to .£250, and anything beyond that cannot bo authorised without the approval of Cabinet. This causes endless delays, especially when, as is often tho case, Ministers are all over tho country, and it is almost impossible to get a Cabinet meeting. Hampers' of papers have to bo continually sent a!T round tho country to catch Ministers. It would save an immense amount of delay and the time of tho Under-Secretary and other officers of the Department, and also tho time of the Minister for Public Works and other members of the Ministry, if, after tho appropriations have been-pawed by Parliament, and Cabinet has authorised any particular work to be gone on with, the expenditure was left to the Under-Secretary; • at all events up to a reasonable amount, and he could make a schedule from time to time of the amounts ho had authorised;and send this on to the Minister and tho Cabinet, so that they might know what is being done.

A Balance-Sheet Wanted. Bringing its analysis and description of the public accounts, as printed, to a close, the Commission states:— (1) That it is urgently required that the public accounts shouid show a com-' plete balance-sheet, disclosing . correctly tho actual position of the affairs of the ' Dominion at' the balance date, together with a general profit and loss account as regards the trading or business- Departments, and a general statement of the revenue and expenditure of the administrative or revenue collecting and spending Departments.' These principal statements should be supported by as many subsidiary or Departmental accounts as may bo necessary, always providing that the connection is clearly stated, and that all are in agreement. (2) The subsidiary accounts should show not only the profit or loss resulting from the operations of each trading Department, but also the cost of conducting each of the administrative Departments, with, in the case of the receiving branches of the service, the percentage of that cost to the revenue collected, as is done in the Customs return. (3) We have already referred to the necessitv for a balance-sheet of Land for Settlements branch showing the capital liabilities and the total cost of the estates purchased out of such capital. We are further of the opinion that this sheet/ should be supported by subsidiary state; ments showing separately for each estate the amount of the original purchase, with the cost of cutting up, reading, plans, and other expenses with which it has been loaded, which would form its proportion of the. total debt of the branch. These statements should also include a profit anil loss account for each estate, showing the rentals and other income, against interest on the loaded cost at the rate payable by the branch on its debt. The Central Ledger. The Commission considers that, witliEome exceptions, the Treasury books should be equivalent to the central or private ledger of a business firm, and that tha books of various Departments should iu reality form subsidiary ledgers, all details that are- not absolutely required to. enable the Treasury to compile the general balance-sheet, profit and loss, and revenue and expenditure accounts being kept by. the different Departments. The Treasury should be able, to instruct tho Departments as to howtheir subsidiary books should bo kept, modifying or altering them from time to time as tho changing conditions of business might require. The appointment is suggested of a Controller or Director of Accounts, who might be ono of the three members of the board which it is suggested should be set up. The Commission considers that the appointment of some controlling and unifying head is ono of the most urgent reforms required in connection with the working and recording of the public accounts; and whether'the office should be filled by a member of the Public Service Board or by the secretary to the Treasury is not a matter of first importance, so long as some such appointment is made. It is also mentioned as a matter worth consideration whether there should not be appointed under the Director two inspectors —say, one for each island—whose duties would be similar to those of an inspector of a. bank, in that they would travel right throughout the Dominion for llio purpose of seeing that the Treasury regulations were systematically and regularly carried out. They should also have power to give definite directions for alterations or improvement wherever they deemed I hem necessary, and il would be their dutv to report generally on offices and officers.

In tho latter part of the report, the Commission deals exhaustively with the control and audit of accounts, correspondence, records, etc. Efficiency and Economy. "True efficiency," the Commission remarks in bringing its report to a conclusion, "will produce both the economy of decreased cost and the economy of belter service. It is hard to give an estimate of what this would mean, but we are satisfied that tho results, if the recommendations that we hnvo made are adopted, will ho very great. We are obtaining and spending roughly, on an average, a revenue of .£11,000,000 a year. Imagine, now, an increased efficiency that would merely mean a reduction-of 1 per cent, in expanses and an addition of 1 per emit. in the efficiency'of the Service rendered: these comparatively small improvements would amount to .£220,000 a year. This does not seeni much on a revenuo of ■£11.000,000. but accumulating at i iper cent, it would amount to a sum Ihat would wipe out tho present national debt of the Dominion in seventy-one years—a long time in the life of an individual, but a very short time in the life of a country. This is what: can be done by a decrease of ' l lfil ' c( '"'- in ospoiipps and an -increase of 1 per cent, in efficiency of Ihe service rendered, and we think it will be agreed Ihat it is no mere trifle. Wo arc snli.-fied that if the plans we lmve laid down are adopted, not only will this 1 per cent, each way be obtained, but the actual result will be many times mere." The Commission expresses its obligation? 'to Mr. -1. Hislop. Under-Secretary for Internal Affairs, and to Mr. -I. W. Kimiiburgh. its own secretary, for ready una' able a«istauce rendered to it in its work,