“COSTLY TRADITION.”

Otago Witness, Issue 3105, 17 September 1913, Page 88

“COSTLY TRADITION.”

PUBLIC SERVICE CONSERVATISM (From Our Own Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, September 3

In the course of their report upon the public service the commissioners make some interesting comment upon the habit of public servants to rely upon obsolete’ systems of work because of their innate conservatism.

“The commissioners could not fail to observe in the course of their inspection,” they say, “ that the outstanding feature of a number of the departments is their innate conservatism, which has often been carried to-such an extent as to discourage excellent schemes for improvement which, if carried out years ago, would have saved the country large sums of money. It is difficult in all cases to account for the way in which some departments cling to costly tradition. A desire for peace on the part of the controlling officers, no doubt, blinds their eyes to the fact that they are expected to be on the alert to adopt means which will result in greater efficiency or greater economy. When it is added that in some departments promotion has often been the result of seniority, irrespective of tho merits of the officers promoted, it is evident that officers with a limited outlook have drifted into positions which could under the old organisation bo held without the need for the study of efficiency or economy. The tendency is not only to follow obsolete systems but also to regard them as the only perfect ones. Some departments seem to have changed their methods in only a slight degree for years, and even now time is being expended in collecting information for returns which are absolutely useless. One of the most expensive traditions is that of clinging to systems of work performed in the old provincial departments. In the case of one largo department, each of the district officers appears to be working on the old provincial system, which varied in every province. This is well known to the department, but apparently no one has yet had the energy or the courage to establish a uniform system. The result is that when an officer is removed from one provincial district to another he has to a large extent to learn his business over again.”