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A former top public servant has accused Government ministers of hanging their department heads out to dry when things go wrong, following a series of situations where ministers have publicly criticised ministry chief executives.
Ross Tanner, who was Deputy State Services Commissioner from 1993 until 2001, yesterday used a speech to public servants in Wellington to make a series of strong comments about recent high-profile events.
Mr Tanner said the loyalty of public servants to current and future governments was at risk because it was becoming common for ministers to hand the responsibility of defending a mistake to a ministerial chief executive, rather than deal with it.
"The consequence is that chief executives involved are often being left to hang out to dry," Mr Tanner said.
He said the situation was exacerbated by criticisms of those public servants by the very politicians who should be answering questions on their behalf.
"There was a convention where in return for the loyalty and professionalism of the public service, ministers would actually answer in public and defend the actions, where they can, of their department," Mr Tanner later told the Herald.
"What we're seeing now is a tendency to pass the buck to the chief executive, and saying 'you defend it'."
The public service has been at the centre of several big news events in the past few months, including the furore about Air New Zealand ferrying Australian troops to the Middle East.
In that case, Foreign Affairs head Simon Murdoch accepted responsibility for not alerting his minister to the airline's intention to carry out the flights.
Environment Ministry chief executive Hugh Logan has also been in the headlines and fronted a press conference over his decision to get rid of a communications manager because her partner was a National Party staffer.
The face of Corrections Department head Barry Matthews has become well known and the Commissioner of Police is also a regular in the media.
Mr Tanner said he was not arguing that department heads had handled things well, but he was questioning the way they had been "left out there to defend in public" what had happened.
It was unfortunate to see ministers leaping in and publicly criticising their departments or ministries, and there was a line to be drawn in terms of what the ministers actually said, he said.
But Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday said the head of Foreign Affairs had made a "bad judgment", and she couldn't understand that judgment.
Asked about the number of recent problems involving public servants, she mused that "there have certainly been some issues".
Asked if it was fair to blame public servants or whether ministers should be taking responsibility for their ministries, she said: "ministers can't be held accountable for the failure of other people to do their job".
She said Mr Murdoch had her respect overall, and referred to his "stellar" public service career.
