M.P.’s examples of Public Service ‘waste’

Press, 22 August 1979, Page 2

M.P.’s examples of Public Service ‘waste’

PA Wellington A threat by the chairman of Parliament's Public Expenditure Committee, Miss Marilyn Waring, to reveal specific examples of waste m Government spending startled delegates, many of them public servants, at the Institute of Public Administration’s annual convention yesterday. Early in a speech she said that too much of the debate about the effectiveness of the Public Service had been limited to generalities. She gave examples of waste and inefficiency: — The curriculum unit of the Education Department, which used to have six persons and now had more than 100 — with "incredible expense” as they changed school curricula to justify their existence. By the time

new curricula were developed they were out of date.

— Telephone servicing in the country — Post Office staff could not service a neighbour Of the person they visited without first getting a work-sheet from their base. — The Public Service car she saw last week-end at Ruapehu. — The time it took for the Ministry of Works to partition buildings. — The duplication of the work of Hansard reporters in Parliament — they took notes while debates were also being recorded. — Walking into Parliament Buildings one was now met by three messengers and two security guards. — The posting of refund cheques for 17c by the Inland Revenue Department, and a later letter asked that the cheque be cashed.

— The maintenance of construction or maintenance forces by 19 different departments. — The involvement of Health, Social Welfare, Education, Police, and Maori Affairs departments, the sport and recreation Ministry, hospital boards, local authorities, and others in the same field of community work. — The hours spent by public servants sitting on boards, commissions, committees, and tribunals. As a backbench M.P. Miss Waring said, she noticed the waste of time in the system of Ministerial letters. Many inquiries did not need to be directed through the Minister’s office, and she had sent letters - direct to centres nearest her electorate. The Social Welfare Depart-

ment, the Housing Corporation, Rural Bank, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries sent immediate replies; others replied within a week or so but through the Minister, whereas another sent a telegram back that the matter was ‘-‘confidential,” she said. Miss Waring also advocated the employment of public servants on contract —“to save older public servants blocking up the system.” She suggested a system of limited tenure for all positions in the Public Service and incentives for public servants to manage efficiently. “While a common criticism would be that such a system would be the subject of political abuse I do not believe it would be, espe-

cialiy if appointments were for five or seven years,’’ Miss Waring said. Rewards were needed for the departments which did cut spending, perhaps for every 10 per cent saved 5 per cent should be available fdr that department’s new policies. Other speakers suggested that waste was no greater in the public than the private sector, and that politicians were as much to blame as public servants. The Secretary for Justice (Mr J. Robertson) said resources were not consumed any less efficiently by the Government except where objectives and priorities were not well defined. Such matters were political, and political courage rated equally with administrative efficiency needed for a re-

duction in Government activity. Mr Robertson advocated changing the law so the Cabinet committee on expenditure could initiate the review of the employment of a permanent head. “This type of direct accountability would reassure the public that the ultimate sanction is there for the extreme case,” he said. The Controller and Audi-tor-General (Mr A. G. Shailes) suggested that Parliament needed reform and the Public Expenditure Committee would be more effective as two companies — one looking at past expenditure, and the other forward.' Parliament should meet at reasonable hours, all year round.