Red Tape, Bureaucracy Not Confined To Civil Service

Northern Advocate, 28 June 1947, Page 4

Red Tape, Bureaucracy Not Confined To Civil Service

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, This Day. THERE was more red tape and bureaucrats _ in some large business concerns than in state departments, said the retiring president (Mr B. L. Dallard) addressing the annual meeting of the Civil Service Institute.

“I have been struck by the growing criticism of the Public Service.” said Mr Dallard. ‘‘Of course, one must expect in these times a feeling of irksomeness on the part of the public at the continuation of many controls and restrictions that were introduced as a wartime expediency. ‘‘One must recognise also the inevitability of chafing under the burden of high taxation, which is ascribed by certain critics as an unnecessary army of civil servants.

“It is not for me to express an opinion as to whether controls can be relaxed or whether there is redundant staff.

“Some people seem to imagine that the spate of regulations results mainly from a lust for power by civil servants and that in some obscure way Government officials get some personal gratification or advantage out of the issuance of regulations. DO PARLIAMENT’S WILL “Such criticism entirely overlooks that the Civil Service is not a policyforming body and that its functions are purely administrative. “Parliament outlines general policy in an enactment, and the Cabinet or Executive Council lays down in regulations the detailed administrative method of implementing such policy. Parliament maintaining complete control by requiring that regulations be tabled. “The civil servant has been described as one avid of power but fearful of responsibility," continued the speaker. “It has been suggested that they are inclined to develop a Jehovah complex, resulting in the tyranny of incompetence.

“But is this really so? The Civil Service executive officer will stand comparison with the executive of large business concerns in respect of standard of education, appreciation of social implications, initiative and resourcefulness; indeed, it will be found on examination, and I have had ample opportunity when I was attached to the Board of Trade of observing, that there is more red tape in some of the larger private firms than in the Government. REGULATION OF AFFAIRS “Further, there are more bureaucrats in private business than in state departments.

“I do not refer to the humble Oriental fruiterer who will only sell bananas or lemons if you buy turnips or cabbages, but I refer to the big firms, such as insurance companies, banks, shipping companies, organisations of employers and employees, all of whom adopt bureaucratic methods for the regulation of their affairs. “Bureaucrats are by no means exclusive to the Public Service, nor are their methods inherently bad. Yet, strangely, when applied to the service the word is used as a term of opprobrium. “I think it can be claimed that the institute has endeavoured to be a leavening influence in the maintenance of standards which have helped in building up the high traditions of the service. At least we can claim, so far as the more senior and responsible officers are concerned, that there has been no declension in morale or waning in loyalty to tradition. We must be ever mindful of the fact that we are servants of the state and that the Public Service exists for the benefit of the community, not the taxpayer for the benefit of state employees.”