Exposures Likely On Loafing Public Servants

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 December 1949, Page 2

Exposures Likely On Loafing Public Servants

SYDNEY, December 18 (Ait Mail). —lnvestigations by the LiberalCountry Party Government in Australia are expected to reveal that thousands of temporary public servants on full pay have done little or no work for more than a year, according to officials in Government Departments. Nearly 86,000 temporary public servants will be screened to weed out incompetents among the 141,716 departmental employees in Australia. Here is the typical daily routine of the loafing Public Servant as drawn up by a senior permanent official who has prepared a detailed report for the new Government: — 9 a.m., the employee arrives at the office, about 10 minutes late. From 9.5 to 9.20 he goes to the washroom and then spends nearly an hour reading the morning papers. At 10.15 he glances at a file until 10.30 tea break, which lasts until 11 a.m. From 11 to 12.15 p.m. he walks through the building chatting and then prepares to go to lunch from 12.30 to about 2 p.m.. From 2 until 3.30 he chats and walks about the building, makes a ’phone call or two and then has afternoon tea from 3.30 to 4 p.m. From 4 to 4.45 p.m. he looks at files, talks, rings a friend and then goes to the washroom to get ready for going home at 5 p.m. Loafers who have been maintaining this routine for more than a year, in some cases, have clone so in defiance of permanent senior officials and even departmental heads.