Ministry Of Works

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30210, 15 August 1963, Page 20

Ministry Of Works

In this year’s Ministry of Works Statement, the Commissioner of Works (Mr J. T. Gilkison) emphasises the search for maximum efficiency that is being pressed with vigour in this huge department of State. The commissioner does not doubt that there are aspects of the department’s organisation and operation which are :apable of improvement; and no-one who considers the scope, size, and complexity of the department’s work would be inclined to disagree with him, even if specific failures by the department had not been brought to notice from time to time by such bodies as the Public Expenditure Committee of the House of Representatives. As time has gone on, the department has involved itself in virtually every form of construction work in New Zealand, including electricity construction projects, housing, public buildings, roads, irrigation, soil con-

servation and rivers control, civil aviation projects, and defence construction and maintenance. Its professional staff includes 560 engineers (including cadets and officers attending universities), 110 architects, 97 quantity surveyors, 151 engineering technicians and surveyors, and 813 draughtsmen. It is satisfactory to see that the Commissioner is not "complacent about the working of his huge organisation, and that to the end of greater efficiency he is seeking outside aid. Exploratory talks have been held with leading management consultants with a view to submitting the whole of the department’s organisation and operations to analysis. Some believe that it is not to the nation’s advantage that so much of its construction work should be under centralised control. This is a question that might well be submitted to the consultants for their I examination.