PUBLIC SERVICE CONTROL

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7263, 20 October 1910, Page 3

PUBLIC SERVICE CONTROL

THE CO MM OMAVEALTII POSTAL SERVICE. The Koval Commissioa appointed to inquire into the post and telegraph services of Australia recently submitted its report b> the Governor-General. Since wo are frequently told in this country that there would be “a great improvement in the efficiency of the Civil Service,*' if it were placed in charge or a Commissioner, as in Australia, ‘the following extract from the report of the Royal Commission, is of some interest; Your commissioners disapprove of the system under which staff matters affecting me department are placed under the independent authority of the Commonwealth i-'uuuc .Service Commissioner, for the following reasons:— (1) Such a system makes for divided control, which is undesirable and un--1 necessary. (2) It gives the Commonwealth Public Service Commissioner power to refuse staff which the Post and Telegraph Department considers to be necessary, whilst no responsibility for the efficiency of the services is incurred with such power. (3; The responsible heads of the Post and Telegraph Department, acting as a staff committee, would be, in the opinion of your commissioners, in a better position to judge the qualifications of their officers than any outside authority. Such divided control, combined with the fact that the department is entirely dopencient on the Treasurer for funds for carrying on its services, renders efficient management extremely difficult, if uot altogether impossible, since independent authorities arc vested with power without responsibility, while the Post and 'Telegraph Department is divested of power, and, at the same time, charged with responsibility. Power and responsibility should be combined in the one authority. It was frequently admitted that the central executive had been seriously hampered by ; this multiplicity of control. j