PUBLIC SERVICE

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28573, 30 April 1958, Page 11

PUBLIC SERVICE

Influence On Policy Alleged (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, April 29. Complaints that there had been a tendency for members of the Public Service to influence the Government in matters of policy, which was not part of their duties, were made today by Mr F. P. Walsh, president of the Federation of Labour, speaking to the federation’s annual meeting. “This tendency was particularly noticeable during the term of the Nationalist Government, due to the fact that the Ministers were incapable, in most cases, of formulating policy and directing its execution,” he said. “As a result of this weakness of Nationalist Cabinet Ministers, much of the responsibility for the inflationary condition of the country’s finances and the overimporting which has taken place may be fairly laid at the doors of the Reserve Bank and the Treasury,”, he added. A weakness which he said had appeared in the Public Service in recent years had been the appointment to positions as heads of departments of persons without knowledge or experience of th? department That policy had resulted in grave dissatisfaction among members of the staffs because of lack of confidence in the person concerned, and that led to a serious loss of efficiency.