WHAT AILS THE CIVIL SERVANT?

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1303, 5 December 1911, Page 5

WHAT AILS THE CIVIL SERVANT?

(By "Reform.") Everyone 1 admits that what all Civil Services want is less red-tape and mora business-liko methods. Some Civil Services are worse than others. New Zealand's: w very bad. Wo in New Zealand may ask ourselves i? this truth to bo merely recognised by intelligent persons and 110 effort made to correct it? Surely not; unless, indeed, intelligencers to ho regarded as a weapon for disillusionment instead of enlightenment. Whilo declaring that there is no employee in the whole of New Zealand who lacks interest in his occupation so much as the Civil Servant, we need not hastily concludo that the Civil Servant himself is altogether lo blamo for this. Ho is, a.s all employees are largely, tho creature of a system, and unless persons are mado i responsible for a faulty system there cannot bo much hope for improvement. Before an attempt can be mado to offer suggestions for reform of the Civil Service wo mast first try . and discover tho causes operating faultily. Primarily the interest of the public has to be obtained, for we realise that where expense of management can bo abstractedly distributed, as it is in the case of llie Civil Service, affecting in an indirect way tho purse of all the people, including even the civil official himself. It is a natural enough assumption that the question of economising will not attract tho attention of tho people to such a dcgi'co as it would where such expense appeals directly to the pocket of let us say, tor comparison, a dividend-earning company shareholders. Outside callings such as banking, insurance, and mercantile pursuits aro carried on in the interests of watchful shareholders. It should bo to tho interests of the people to make themselves—the shareholders of tho State —morp watchfully represented in the conduct of tho affairs of its service. Administrative Wastage. There will, however, always be a certain amount of .waste in any form of Government—indeed, in any form of life does nature seem to order this—so surely as there will be, experimentally engendered, waste in its legislative acts. But that should bo no reason why an effort should not bo made to minimise administrative wastage at any lime, and, as with Now Zealand, reduce it. from its present altogether excessive extent. Not alone in the taxpayers behoof, but,., very importantly, /with the object of giving interest to the Government employee in his work. To the young officers "forming character it is highly demoralising to see waste and useless effort constantly under their eye, and that there is alongside considerable individual efficiency in the Government Service of New Zealand, an unreasonable, an extravaamount of waste and niisnpplied effort is only too obvious to any intelligent observer. These evils in themselves create a pessimism throughout the whole service that acts rapaciously on hopeful, healthful, and efficient effort. It is obviously cosier for the shareholders of a ■company'with well-paid and wclleelected - controlling officials to get economy the predominant law in tho working of their company tlvm for the shareholders of the State—the people of tho country—so badly renresented in the management of its affairs to have tho factor of economy the governing one. And where there is economy there also is . fcund'efficiency. For all work, all utilitrm 5 ac aro founded upon economy. The people of the country, therefore, should demand that the methods of carrying oil the administrative functions of Government should as nearly as possible bp placed upon a business-like footing. # Let us'proceed to attempt to synonimiso as nearly as we can for the purposes of comparison tho methods of conducting tho Civil .Service vrith those of a private company. TYo shall later on aim at •establishing tho Civil Service on a more business-like footing, which is as surely pttainablo as it is desirable. r- . ? Responsibility. To so synonimisa tho working of the service with other callings, it is first of all necessary that the officers o£ the State should'lro mado more responsible to the people, or, let us put it, to the shareholders of the country. Under existing conditions, this responsibility is merely in name. There is no definite and reasonable way whereby it is seen that the work of tho State is carried on in the best inof the public. Tho shareholders of a joint stock company delegate the duty of the control of their concern to direc-tors,-whoso solo aim is to" conduct the company's affairs economically and efficiently. They are selected for their business qualifications, and arc canablo of looking closely into tho methods" of their managers. How, now, docs a directorate of a company differ from the directorate of a State's affairs—the Ministers of the Crown? In a very vital way, indeed, it must be. observed. Tho directors of tho company are specially trained men, they aro shareholders, and arc, therefore, perBOiially, permanently, and pecuniarily wrapped in tho company's welfare. There is no doubt but that cconoinr and efficiency arc their watchwords. The Ministers of the Crown have r.o concretc divi-dend-earning or permanent salary attachmeut to the country, and although thev may he very interested in tho welfare of tho people, thev have lc?s of an eye to the nnlaudcd and glamdurless drudgery of Departmental direction and economising than to the specious rhetoric which is the roseate path to the friendship of the 1 voters. ■And, unfortunately for "their own interests, the bulk of the electors have no conception whatever of the cost and workin* of a Government: They do not Teali.se how it affects their pocket. Childlike, in big misdirected faith, they often regard the Treasury of the country as a credit- mobilier. ' ■ A Minister, in directing his Department, is concerned with tangible results; ho does not bother about whether these results aro obtained.by a good or by a bad process. Ho may be a very.good Minister and yet be a poor Department over- i Baer. lie may have a fiiio grasp of humon needs, bo imbticd with the. best desires for tho weliaro of the people, and still have no aptitudo for, be, in fnct, ; utterly im-J patient of tho detail work attached to~ managerial or technical investigations. In j fust, it.'is seldom that such .qualifications I are coupled in one man. It may, therefore., be readily conceded that colonial Ministers—the accredited directors of the Government Departments —aro far l'l-om being air approximation of businsjs directors, and'cannot bo regarded as being _ capable of clerically directing, supervising, or reorganising the Civil Service. If a Minister, in face of tho amount of. drudgery—which it would bo to a man of - his bold and snecious' nature at anyrate—and clotje'application required to obtain knowledge of how to efficiently direct largo bodie-j of clerical workers, declares that the Civil Service is well conducted, lie stands chargeable with talking of a thing ho can at best know only imperfectly. lie at any rate is not fitted to express a reliable judgment. The average colonial Minister is the antithesis of being a teeli-nically-minded or technically-trained man, but the administrative genius is eminently a technically-minded man. A noet, an orator, will attract the ear, but it is the trained practical man who fills the purse cf'a people. "A Great Bugbear." Tho of Ministers 011 the question of Civil Service reform cannot therefore be accepted with faith, nor can Min'stars 'ue regarded as capable of directing n reorganisation of tho system of performing the work. These facts are as obvious as the fact that tho country is minus what all companies have got—proper responsible directors. Recognising this, let" us observe the causes operating against heads of Departments—the man-r.-".rs of tho service—having the same freedom to inaugurate cconomy and efficiency that tho managers of a compaiij have." The lattor are, as already pointed out, under the eye of qualified business directors, some of, whom had probably served an apprenticeship as managers themselves. The managers of n company are also under the control of a head or generai manager, selected with great care for his all-round ability and knowledge, There is, however, let it be noted, no supremo managing head in the Government service. Wo i'nid, instead, chaotically, that each manager or Under-Secretary, good, bad, and indifferent, is not only a manager and a general.manager unto himself, but in view of the unfitness of colonial Ministers for clerical directorial work, a director a3 well. An Under-Sec-

| rotary can rule, direct, and work his Department as ho thinks fit, having no hindrance thereto, barring illicit intercourse between subordinates and Ministers. A lot, therefore, denends unon his intell igeuee. He can, if capable, make the working of his Department comparatively economical and efficient, but he will always find a great bugbear to these essentials of success in being under the dominance of other Departments, which, although quite independent of one another as regards direction, are largely interdependent with respect to carrying .011 (he work of the country. Tliere is an anarchic chaos in running the.Civil Service that would not bo tolerated one day in a private company. If not a capable officer— and outside iirms have a knack of securing tho services of most of the genuinely capablo Government officers by offering better pay—lie will blunder through with his work, never having a clear grasp of it, putting dependent Departments to inucli vexatious mi-tape troublo and expense, unbelievable in extent to anyone not having sonic intimacy with tho working of the service. The complexity of Hie work in the Government service,"suckled and stall-fed 011 gross carelessness of method, should long since have mado it obvious to tho Government of tho country that instead of private firms buying able Government officers with better pay the reverse should be the case. Obstacles. Now, a capable Under-Secretary will have to contend with all of tho following obstacles in the attainment of perfection within his official domicile:— Indifference of his Ministerial head, who not being a business man does not appreciate the position, and who in his clerical ignorance is inclined to letwell, or bad, rather alone. Illicit influence —it is of abnormal dimensions—of his subordinate officers with the Minsterial head of the Department. Picd-tapc annoyances of other Departments. Hostility of his own officers, who might fear loss of position if businesslike reforms were carried out. A humane feeling towards officers whom he knows in many cases are more or less charitably employed, and who, if tho order for efficiency were given would lie coldly turned, adrift to commencc life's battles again, penniless, and by useless employment trained to an artificial unfitness. Finally, there are few, if any, heads of Departments who had not got relatives, or at least friends, employed in their Departments. Some have quito a host of them, and it will be found that practically to a man they got better pay than other officers of longer service or greater fitness. The number of friends of Ministers, ex-Ministers, and their Parliamentary supporters in the Service is legion. A few of those officers are capable enough: many are quito useless. These are cumbersome obstacles, and in the face of them''an' Under-Secretary would hesitate before he took up the role of performing what might well be termed unmistakably difficult reform. But no Under-Secretary in the Civil Service of New Zealand, however, who has any respect for his intelligence, and whip would not bo classed ignorant of the affairs of the service generally, can say that tha methods of conducting it are even a distant relation of adequate efficiency aud economy. Some Departments are conducted mnel: better.than others, .great differences oftm existing in their respectivo methods, quite enough in itself to create a demand'for reform of the whole'systembut there is no Department conducted no well that it is not capablo of marked improvement. The .discipline in the service is of an entirely different order to what exists in other callings. "With regard to the amount of work performed by each officer, need for that work, aiiil facile control of staffs by their superiors tho service is a complete negation of outside. businesses. It may ho said that a Departmental head never questionseither from want of knowledge or temer ity—tho assertion from any officer that he has too much work to do, and tho consequence i" that the lazy aud scheming ones—and in what occupations in lifeare they not to be found P—develop their characteristics strongly and pervert others. There is no check whatever on what constitutes a fair day's work for any officer in the service. No head of a Department ever yet worked out a scheme even foi his own information whereby- it may Ix seen that work is evenly divided, ard' there is no business "oncern or Govorntnent office where this could not be don'.-. Ability often counts for very little uheve influence can be used, and inediccr.t : cs with a pull are- impudently _ given '.ho preference tin the higher positions. Officers who aro willing get little or no encouragement; their salary increments are no greater than those of a man doing but half their work. Tho lazy cannot be urged on, nor the schemer brought to n more sensible realisation of things; "for what does it matter?" ask these men of humdrum prospects, one as-good as the other, best little better than the worst. The hebetate . head of one of the important Departments not a very long time ago, from supercilious or nepotic reasons, informed ail the hard-working officers of his Department that if they desired help to apply for it, nnd it would be forthcoming. Although not so childishly and unsolicitously expressed, this- tendency pervades practically the whole service. There is a devilish disregard of expense. Transcending everything however in the service is the pathetic sight of men doing work that is os totally superfluous and redundant-as that of a man who would walk three times to a well to obtain ono bucket of water. "Would Stagger the Public.' It must not be supposed that the writer infers that Departments aro managed on actually careless lines. Moro or less satisfactory results are obtained from all of them, but it is the awfully expensive way in which these results are obtained that would stagger the public if the facts wes'a specifically laid before them. The duplication and re-duplication .0! work, tho extravagantly round-aboiit methods pursued, the way in which Is. is spont to save or to collect sixpence, would, if laid before a business man astonish and dumbfound him. And it should be understood that there aro many genuinely, sincere servants of the State, hard working, whose unassuming way of performing their duties is an index" to tlr-ir character, and a credit to tho country they serve, but unfortunately through no fault of their own, a great percentage of their efforts is waste. They well know the imperfections of the system., and know full well the hopelessness of improving matters tangibly without there was a deliberate authoritative order, and the course cleared for it to he done. A: well as these gonuino servants there are. however, many who had the c.uteness to hoodwink more or less technically ignorant Ministers into a belief of their capabilities, aud aro now filling important positions in preference to othcra much more capable but less forward. New Zealand in'the past has been accustomed to Governments that had power to stuff th& servico with a body of incompetents. One of sucli Governments can very easily, when the demand is made by Parliament for retrenchment, rid the service of a large percentage of its members, and still leave the efficiency of it in ns wretched a position as before. But is this policy either sensible or humane? To misdirect human beings in their mission in life into false positions, whero they cannot 1)0 put to use, and to cast them adrift after an apprenticeship at uselessness is surely not tho duty of a Government. Such a policy may be described as the maximum of ignorance, rottenness md cruelty. It has had the effect of unsettling the whole service,.making most Civil Servants feel insecure enough to regard contributing to the iiiciwe in population with fear. The Civil Servant has a notoriously small family. If a large employer of labour liko tha State is incapable of so governing its own servants as to make their lives one of ethical fitness, is it possible for any one to claim that we havo a good -form if Government? But the policy of irresponsibly employing and nonchalantly dismissing its servants is the policy that has prevailed in Now Zealand, and the Departments arc at present stuffed with iargo numbers of useless, insufficiently and senselessly employed officers, at work which even the youngest of them .may 1)3 heard to freely criticise and ridicule; at duties which they know give thcro no entitlement to look into the fuluro with an invigorating faith and hope.

The writer cannot see any hope of ever being able to cope with the question of Civil Service reform satisfactorily otherwise than by appointing a board of capable business men, practical, strong and tactful, carefully excluding any person who has advanced in the servico on its present faulty lines. They could go iuto tho whole mutter of Departmental ivprk-

liig with the view of instituting uniformity ami system. Such a board would net os tho intermediary between tho people—the shareholders of the country—on fho one. hand, and the Civil Servant on the other, filling the much-nceded position of directors and general managers of the* State's administrative affairs. Tliey would make the whole wjrvico an efficient body. Tho experiences trained in one Department they could uso to tho benefit of others. The waste and extravagance o£ effort in tho Civil Service of New Zealand is doubly and damnably appnlling. Tho incentive to the Government servant to do his best is wanting to a very abnormal extent. Compare the average Civil Servjint with the average outside employee. Tho Civil Servant is a pessimist., the other an optimist. Pessimistic effort is contrary to the law whereby men are educated and traiGed to perform services for struggling mankind.