WARNING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 82, 8 April 1937, Page 8

WARNING.

SECRET REPORTS. BUREAU OF INDUSTRY, GOVERNMENT PRACTICE. HEARINGS IN PUBLIC URGED. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON", this day. "The occasion of my retirement from office in the Manufacturers' Federation gives me," said Mr. A. E. Mander in a statement to the Press to-day, "an opportunity of drawing public att?ntion to one very serious development of the times. This is a matter which concerns not only industrialists, hut everybody in New Zealand who cares for certain vital principles of justice and (in the long run) honesty in public administration. "I refer," said Mr. Mander, "to the increasing practice of the Government and the Bureau of Industry in making decisions and taking action on the strength of secret reports prepared by Departmental officials. "In a typical case, the Minister of Customs, or the Minister of Industries and Commerce, or the Bureau of Industry, may be obliged to make some decision affecting the financial interests of shareholders, and the very livelihood of hundreds of workers in a particular industry or industrial concern. '"To arrive at that decision the Minister or the Bureau must have some idea of the 'efficiency , of the concern in question, or the soundness of its business methods. That is agreed. The Department, sends one of its officers or clerks to investigate; and in due course the report is placed in the hands of the Minister or the Bureau. In my experience such reports always cany a great deal of weight; they are solemnly referred to as 'official' reports, and upon the strength of them we lind our industries being judged and treated by the Government. One concern is given favourable treatment—in tariff, perhaps, or in some other form of assistance—because a Departmental officer has reported it to be "efficient and wellmanaged;" while another concern is placed at a disadvantage in every consideration of its case—because some Departmental officer has reported upon it adversely.' . Firms Left in the Dark. Mr. Mander emphasised that he was not at the moment questioning the competence of some officers of the Department of Industries and Commerce, while for the officers of the Customs Department he had nothing but respect. But even assuming that the investigation was always made by a fully competent technical officer, one who really understood the intricacies of business and had more than a superficial acquaintance with the principles of industrial efficiency—eveij assuming, further, that tlse investigation itself was thorough and systematic; still there remained a question whether the report ehould b? a secret, one, or whether it ought not to be ftiecloeed to the firm reported upon. At present such reports were secret; the firms themselves were given no indication whatever of the criticism's to which they were subjected. "It is certainly a rule in the Army, and I believe in many other institution*," Mr. Mander observed, "that any adverse report upon an officer must be ehown to the officer concerned.' This is a safeguard against falee reports or unfair comments based on some misunderstanding which could he cleared up in a moment—if the officer himself were made acquainted with it. In my own experience dirring four 'years "representing New Zealand manufacturer* I have come across dozens of actual cases of such misunderstandings between Departmental officers and industrialists, "In many instances we have discovered —but often not until niv>nth« later— that a Minister or Department has been prejudiced by a report upon a particular factory, or upon the management of "a particular business, which report has been based upon a complete misunderstanding of the position. Again and again, when we have eventually discovered what was at the bottom"of it, we have been able to put matters right. But one hates to think how many cases there must be which never become known to us. "Can we imagine any other judicial or quasi-judicial authority basing its decisions on confidential reports irom departmental officers, without even informing the persons affected what grounds the decision is based upon ? Yet the Minister of Industries and Commerce, the Minister of Customs, and the Bureau of Industry are doing this very thing daily. System is a Bad One. "I do not criticise them as individuals, but I do earnestly suggest that the system is a bad one. One has only to fancy the same practice adopted in the criminal courts —the judge #nd jury having before them, not the evidence of the police given in open Court, but only Becret reports by police officers. Or could the same practice be adopted in regard to hotel licenses? Or in jivil cases in the Courts? Or in inquiries into shipwrecks ? "Surely one of the most cherished of our British traditions is that all judgments shall be based only upon evidence openly given: no man, no firm, no industry should be condemned on the strength of secret reports by police officers or any other Government officers or agents. " In view of the immense powers now vested in Minister* of the Crown, the Board of Trade, the Bureau of Industries, and the like—and remembering that these authorities are continually making decisions which may vitally affect the interests of hundreds of shareholders and thousands, of workers in industries—and especially when we see great countries like Russia and Germany operating frankly on the . principle that cases may be decided in .secret on confidential reports from Government agents, surely it is time for New Zealandera, who inherit the contrary tradition, to insist upon the importance that they attach to it. "I am not trying to raise a political bogy," Mr. Mander concluded. "The tendency of which I complain began long before the last general election, •but it is increasing very rapidly. Surely we have at least the ri<rht to insist that | industrial cases of all kinds shall be [ heard in public instead of in camera, l with necessary safeguards for certain ' types of evidence; and surely the principle can lie established that no Government officer or acrent ehall report on the efficiency or management of fun- jwrtifMilar business or industry, without his report being shown at least to the party , reported upon." ]