Service Doubts On Appointments

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30681, 22 February 1965, Page 14

Service Doubts On Appointments

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, February 21

“The State Service Commission has been loud in its praise of the new method of making top appointments under the State Service Act,” the acting president of the Public Service Association (Mr A. R. D. Williams) said in a statement yesterday.

“However, the service must be excused its doublts, and these will be shared by a large section of the general public.” Mr Williams was commenting on some recent statements made by the State Services Commission. “The essence of an efficient public service of the highest possible integrity is the open assurance the appointments and promotions are by merit and merit alone. “The new system for making appointments to the top eight-odd jobs in the service ensures no such thing. The appointments are made by a special panel, in whose selection politicians are given a considerable degree of control. They are no longer able to be tested on the recog-

nised gauges of merit by an independent appeal authority. “It is no secret that the whole idea of placing these top appointments outside the normal rules was originally linked with another which would have given the politicians virtual control of top appointments. “The Act avoided doing this openly, but recent events must have made many people wonder whether the same effect may not have been achieved in a more roundabout way,” Mr Williams said.