PUBLIC SERVICE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23882, 9 August 1939, Page 3

PUBLIC SERVICE

EFFICIENCY TESTS ATTACKED CRITICISM IN JOURNAL COMPLETE WITHDRAWAL SOUGHT Strong criticism of the efficiency tests imposed on the public service by the Public Service Commissioner, Mr T. Mark, is voiced in an editorial in The Public Service Journal, the official organ of the Public Service Association of New Zealand (Inc.). The editorial describes the imposition of the tests as " ill conceived" and " ill starred" and claims that it is time two assistant commissioners were appointed. "A review of the annual reports to Parliament of the Public Service Commissioner over a series of years discloses that invariably references are made to the efficiency of the public service, which the commissioner has recorded as being fully maintained and encouraged under commissioner control of the public service," states the editorial. "In a recent report the commissioner has actually preened himself, because one in every three public servants in the professional and clerical divisions possesses university degrees or other high examination credentials. We are at one with him in the view that the holding of such credentials are not necessarily an indication of the actual capacity of public servants to competently carry out the practical work allotted to them. System of Reports "In order to ensure, however, thai the quality of the work performed by each officer is accurately gauged the Public Service Commissioner has. for many years, had an elaborate system of reports which, in meticulous detail, provide a pen portrait of the individual, the quality of his work performance, and his potentialities. In addition, he has provided for constant and continuous investigation, by a system of internal inspection of the work of departmental officers and appointed several inspectors to his own staff—a large share of their duties being independent examination of the capabilities and responsibilities of individual public servants. He also at the tast general regrading, insisted that in the larger departments at least, a committee of principal officers, as well as the permanent heads, should advise him on the salary and grading of every officer The Public Service Commissioner, himself, in 1937, weis in contact with many hundreds of public servants, and had abundant opportunity of personal estimate, on too of the profusion of material supplied to him in advance by the intensive system he has been primarily responsible in building up. Circular a Bombshell " Then the bombshell in the last official circular in the shape of an elaborate system of efficiency tests imposed upon all and sundry. In so doing the commissioner has sheltered under authority which he regards as given him under the Public Service Act. 1912. 27 years after its passing. "Something could be said for efficiency tests on specific service activities, hand in hand with the provision of intensive training Jo commence from the outset of an officer's appointment to the Public Service, but that aspect does not enter the picture at this moment. ■■• "The efficiency tests recently announced, however, are obviously iUconceived, and bo unfair to those offlcers who have sacrificed precious years of time, to say nothing of money, in study on the lines hitherto encouraged by the commissioner, that there is small wonder at the storm of protest that has.burst throughout the length and breadth of the Public Apart from creating the indignation of the individual, the very imposition of such tests is a reflection .on the efficiency of the Public Service, and raises the pertinent query, Why? in view of the repeated reports of the commissioner as to the existing high efficiency of the service. The institution of examinations and efficiency tests spread over the period of an officers lifetime is entirely foreign to the present trend In education. Compulsory examinations in our view should have their terminal point in the middle twenties. " The Eve of Battle " " Our editorial mind is crowded with points of attack, but we refrain from indulgence on the eve of the battle, launched by the executive committee on July 31. having as its objective the complete withdrawal of these new examinations and efficiency tests In their present form. We would record however, that the salary scale for professional ■ and clerical divisions In our service is similar to that applying to the Railways and Post and Telegraph Departments, yet there is no indication that the new tests are to apply to those branches of the service, though thr Public Service Commissioner has so often ueed the apparent catch cry of ' uniformity throughout the services Neither is there anv suggestion of immediate reward* for passing the efficiency tests. With their added salary barriers, they are .lust so many brakes to retard the progess of the individual oublic servant which should primarily be governed acocrding to his fltpess and the value of his work to the State the main factors in determination Of efficiency. As well as ill-conceived they are 111-starred, because they raise the issue of the ppwer of one man to impose his Ideas in the education and rV?veloDment of Ihe service. It is time that two assistant commissioners should be provided—the Public Service Act wisely provides for such appointments. . . •" STRONG' AUCKLAND PROTEST WITHDRAWAL OF TESTS SOUGHT (Per United Press Association) ' AUCKLAND, Aug. 8. Following a largely-attended meeting held in Auckland recently when a motion protesting against the proposed efficiency tests in the Public Service was passed, the matter was further discussed at a meeting of the Auckland section of the committee of the Public Service Association, when the following motion was carried:— inat this committee joins with the large body of public servants in recording its emphatic protest at the suggested institution by the Public Service Commissioner of the efficiency tests, and urges the executive of the Public Se?vice Association to take any action deemed necessarv to obtain the witndrawal of the tests in their present form."