Not too young to shave ..

Press, 6 September 1989, Page 8

Not too young to shave ..

By

PATRICK SMELLIE

in Wellington

A theory that the Treasury is staffed largely by boys too young to shave was put to the test by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Select Committee yesterday. The committee was embarking on its annual ritual of grilling Treasury over its Budget Estimates.

It is the best opportunity the Opposition gets all year to interrogate the faceless officials behind economic policy advice. Grasping the opportunity, the Opposition spokesman for Stateowned enterprises, Mr • lan McLean, asked the 14 assembled Treasury people how long they

had served with the department.

The shortest tenure went to the youthful Mr Eric Groom, of the tax section, who joined two months ago.

The longest serving was the deputy secretary, Mr Michael Moriarty, who has been 30 years with the department. Proving himself no slouch with a calculator in the presence of so many financial analysts, Mr McLean found the mean experience level of officials attending was 2.5 years..

He also drew attention to a consultants’ report which said 60 per cent of Treasury officials had less than three years experience in the department.’

But there was a quick Treasury answer.

As Mr Mark Byers, with “going on four years” under his belt, explained, the department was in a “rebuilding” phase. Many recently recruited officers had extensive relevant experience in other areas, he said. Moreover, every time a new officer was employed, the average length of service of Treasury officers as a whole fell a little.

Mr Moriarty said the Treasury had experienced problems keeping good staff in recent years, but was not concerned about the relatively short experience of some of its employees, as long as they were providing high quality work.