Appeal System In Public Service

Press, Volume C, Issue 29672, 16 November 1961, Page 17

Appeal System In Public Service

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, Nov. 15. The present appeal system was working to the great detriment of the Public Service, said the DirectorGeneral of Lands (Mr D. N. R. Webb) before the Royal Commission on State Services today. Mr Webb suggested that all appointments to vacancies below permanent head status should be made by the permanent head, with a right of review for dissatisfied applicants to the Public Service Commission. The commission, acting in this capacity as a board of review, should not sit as a quasi-judicial tribunal, but should have before it the appointee and the appellant, said Mr Webb. The discussion on, or the examination of, the facts of the case should be on purely an informal basis. The appelant should be forced to make his own case, and prove his worth without the help of counsel. The appointment of per. manent heads should be in the hands of tjje Public Service Commission, and there

should be no appeal. Mr 1 Webb submitted. t The assessment of the relative worth of jobs should be a continuing process. He saw - no great merit in the present . five-yearly regrading system, I said Mr Webb. It caused an enormous amount of work, > was upsetting to the organisation, and final decisions were I so long delayed. Efficiency and responsibility 1 would be more adequately ■ rewarded by a different 1 classification and grading . system, and an improved ■ standard of public administration would result, he subi mitted. t He suggested fixing the i automatic maximum of the : basic grade at £750 a year. ' From this, he suggested" two , annual increments of £75 each for officers with School ? Certificate or better who ' would thus proceed automatically to £9OO a year. From this point. £l5O margins would apply up to £l4OO. widening then to £2OO ’ margins. This would reduce the present number of intermediate grades between basic grade and the £2OOO level from 11 to six, he said.