17

H.—l4

Prior to the holding of any such conference the staff should be notified and suggestions invited. An agenda should be prepared of the subjects to be dealt with and a proper report made of the proceedings ; and it should be the business of Departments to see that the decisions of any conference are followed up. Inspection. Probably the greatest need to-day of the Service is the inauguration of a proper system of inspection of all offices. During the visits of the Commissioners it was found that there had been no inspection, in its proper sense, of departmental offices in some cases for years past. This largely accounts for the divergencies which exist in the practices observed. The Commissioners consider that an inspection of every office should be made each year by qualified officers who would not only point out irregularities in methods, &c, but would at the same time take a share in the responsibility of educating officers in the various duties which they are expected to perform. Instruction-books. During the course of inspection, it was found that in many Departments in the past it has not been the custom to define the duties attached to any particular office or to make clear the relations which should exist between officers in one section or branch of a Department with another, with the result that in different branches of a Department there has grown up a lack of uniformity of method and an absence of that community of interest so essential in the successful administration of any concern. It is considered that the duties of officers occupying responsible positions should be clearly defined, and that the practices to be followed in the routine work of a Department should be outlined and published for the guidance of officers. In one or two offices there were traces of attempts having been made at one time to do this, but the results were negatived from the fact that the information was not kept up to date. Accommodation. A matter demanding early attention is the necessity for devising, in many cases, some better arrangement for bringing the officers in charge of sections of offices into closer proximity with the staff which they control. It is not an uncommon occurrence to find work poorly supervised and with no definite arrangement existent, in consequence of the fact that sections or groups of officers are working in separate and small rooms, and that the sectional officer in charge is in another room, sometimes considerably removed from the centre of his control. In cases where this now happens it is considered that there should be a complete rearrangement of the accommodation. Sectional heads should, wherever practicable, be in the same room as the staff they control. Where conditions such as these prevail it invariably tends to bring about too rigid divisions in an office or Department, besides rendering transfer of officers difficult. In consequence of the circumscribed outlook not only as regards other Departments, but also as between sections of the same Department, the community of interest which should exist between various officers and sections is destroyed. In designing new buildings for Departmental purposes this question requires careful consideration. The modem practice in large business concerns in America and elsewhere is to provide rooms large enough to contain the whole of the clerical staff, the accommodation for supervising officers being merely a space elevated from the main room, and railed off with a rail about 2 ft. high. A similar arrangement could be adopted with advantage by many Departments, and would result in a saving of large sums of money for staff. With one or two exceptions Departments are provided with accommodation which is the antithesis of this, the prevailing idea being apparently that honour and importance are reflected on every officer who has a separate room. There is no method that can be conceived which is more likely to result in excessive staffing than this.

3—H. 14.