"GALLING ATTITUDE"

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 12, 14 July 1939, Page 10

"GALLING ATTITUDE"

PUBLIC SERVANTS

USE OF GOVERNMENT CARS

"We think one of the most dissatisfying acts committed by the Public Service Commissioner during the past twelve months has been the authorising of traffic inspectors of the Transport Department to report to the Commissioner cases in which they may observe a Government motor vehicle in. circumstances which give some grounds for the belief that the vehicle is apparently being used for non-of-ficial purposes," states an editorial in the July issue of "The Public Service Journal."

"We do not know whether the traffic inspectors are enjoying the role. The vast majority, however, should New a task of this nature as nauseating, and any self-respecting public servant who drives a Government car, whether he likes it or not, writhes at the idea of being subject to such surveillance. The association would be the first, however, to denounce any attempted abuse of the regulations relating to the use of departmental vehicles, but it considers that, in fairness to officers using Government cars, if reports require to be made by the traffic inspectors, they should be made to the permanent heads of the Departments and not to the Public Service Commissioner direct.

"The Public Service Commissioner has wide powers indeed, but he is not a police inspector. The control and discipline of individual officers is placed in the hands of the permanent heads, and if reports are made to them in the first instance it would probably be found that the Departments were fully aware of the circumstances surrounding the use of the car, thus rendering it unnecessary for the matter to be made the subject of review by the Public Service Commissioner. The Commissioner's attitude is galling to self-respecting public servants."