DISOBEDIENT OFFICERS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2520, 22 July 1915, Page 6

DISOBEDIENT OFFICERS

PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSIONER'S REPORT. Instances of flagrant breaches of the Public Service Act, some of them in defiance of express orders, were mentioned in the annual report. of the Public Service Commissioner. Following is tho part of the report dealing with this subject:— "Under Section 15 the Commissioner is required to call attention to any breaches or evasions of the Act. While nothing of sufficient importance has occurred which would justify the statement that there; has been any direct breach of tho provisions of the Act, attention must bo called to the fact that in more than one Department tie'ro have, been attempts to evade tho spirit of tho Act and regulations. These havo been confined to irregularities iti the method of employing temporary officers. The following instances may bo given:— (1) The permanent head of a Department engaged four temporary. clerks without authority, in the belief, it is supposed, that he was empowered to charge their pay to a vote other than salaries. - Owing to tho arrangement bet-wcon the Audit Department and this office, this-was promptly observed.

(2) The permanent head of a Department who has authority to engage labourers expressed, his intention, if tho Commissioner did not provido a clerk, to engage a man as a labourer and give him clerical work. The request for a clerk "was the result of the retirement of a labourer who had been performing clerical work unknown to the Commissioners. ' "

(3) An officer who was given authority to engage a temporary clerk employed his own son, although lie had been ex-* pressly forbidden to do so.

(4) An officer engaged his daughter as a temporary clerk without any authority to engage temporary clerical assistance. The amount of wages paid was surcharged against the officer concerned.

Matters such as these cannot be re-, garded as trivial. Tlio whole aim of tho Public Service Act is that-there should be an ordered arrangement of employment in the Public Service, under which it can be made clear to Parliament what is expended on clerical and other assistance, and, moreover, that every eligible person who applies for employment should have a right to consideration. To employ clerks nominally as labourers defeats the first, and the employment of the near relative of an officer is not calculated to do justice to, applicants in general. There is, of course, nothing to prevent the son or daughter of an officer being appointed as the result of competitive examination, but the Commissioners in such cases iiisist that .the appointment should not be in the same office, and, if possible, not in, the same Department, as that in which the parent is employed. Regulations have been made requiring permanent heads to give the matter of inspection of Stores the closest attention, yet, with the exception of one. Department, the Commissioners have not been advised (as provided by the regulations) that a satisfactory system of inspection has been followed.