Tired public service needs a tune-up

By Selwyn Parker

Public servants have long been the target of sarcasm. "Britain has invented a new missile. It's called the civil servant - it doesn't work and it can't be fired," somebody once wrote in the Observer.

Crueller is the jibe about the determination of public servants to remain anonymous at all costs, as anybody who has tried to put a name to the person answering the phone at Inland Revenue can vouch.

"You can always tell employees of the Government by the total vacancy which occupies the space where most other people have faces," remarked one cynic.

Unfair, of course, but the jokes have always mirrored public opinion. They reflect a frustration with the performance of the public service, which the 20-page briefing for the new Government by the State Services Commissioner, Michael Wintringham, will not do much to dispel.

Mr Wintringham describes numerous long-running weaknesses in the management of the more than 200 Government departments and crown organisations. For example, the briefing makes it clear that much of the public service is bruised, demoralised and confused by wall-to-wall restructurings.

In fact, restructurings have almost become the preferred solution to whatever problem a particular department is suffering from at the time, in spite of the mounting evidence pointing to their long-term damage.

"The costs of restructuring often have been underestimated, the benefits overstated, and the time for the benefits to eventuate underestimated," explains the commissioner.

"My view is that the [damage] is often so serious and so long-lasting that restructuring is counter-productive."

Although most departments have become accountability-mad over the past 15 years, some of them do not appear to know exactly what they are meant to do.

"The continued lack of clarity about what we are trying to achieve has contributed to limited measurement and reporting of what we have achieved, and limited evaluation of the effectiveness of policies," Mr Wintringham writes.

Nor do there appear to be formal requirements by the relevant minister to report progress in getting desired results. If the public service were an Olympic athlete, it would not know it was chasing a gold medal.

Good manpower is another problem. There are just not enough good people for top public sector jobs. The Senior Executive Service, established to nurture managers, has been a failure by Mr Wintringham's admission. There is also a shortage of qualified women and a serious shortage of qualified Maori.

It is not much use looking to the private sector to fill the gaps. Private sector executives are reluctant to run the gauntlet of media criticism for genuine or alleged gaffes, especially for less pay. The media is chastised for being "at best ill-informed or, at worst, mischievous."

Several potential recruits from the private sector told the commissioner they just were not prepared to take on a job where ministers were only too willing to leave them to the mercy of the media, as happened in the Tourism Board row last year. An exception was the Lotto Board, which stood four-square behind David Bale when his $400,000 salary became a political issue.

The commissioner thinks rates of pay are still too low, in part because of public hostility: "[Recent] increases have been the subject of some critical public comments, but ... are necessary."

Amazingly, when the commissioner thinks a remuneration package is too high, he is not allowed to warn the appropriate minister without falling foul of the Privacy Act. All responsibility, no power.

The briefing also addresses some of the issues behind last year's headlines over public servants selling private information and planes being chartered to attend conferences.

Although there was no evidence of endemic corruption, the high ethical standards, Mr Wintringham says, that once characterised the old public service had been buried in a "plethora of documentation" about desired behaviours and standards.

The briefing also suggests that the public service suffers from a surfeit of misguided management theory, not to mention management-speak, and probably from an excess of consultants.

"The early 1990s saw a move to describe government objectives in terms of Strategic Result Areas (SRAs), and to define departments' responses to these in terms of Key Result Areas (KRAs)," the report continues.

"Later, the SRAs were modified into a set of Overarching Goals and Strategic Priorities."

It is hardly any wonder 200,000 public servants are confused. It seems some heads of department are running around in ever-decreasing circles, probably bearing multi-coloured files marked KRA or SRA.

This rings a bell. In 1977 a public servant in Roger Hall's Glide Time described how to look purposeful: John: You must learn the Public Service Corridor Walk.

Michael: The what?

John: The Corridor Walk. The secret is ... always have a piece of paper in your hand ... And look worried. If you do that you can go to Courtenay Place and back and no one'll mind."

The briefing paints a picture of a public service that is trying hard but could do better. It is somewhat incestuous, short on common sense, has a sense of confusion about its role, is reluctant to nail its colours to the mast of measurable results and is too often preoccupied with method rather than result.

This important briefing is not a negative one. It acknowledges that today's public servants are quicker off the mark than they were ("more responsive to the Government of the day than it was a decade ago") and quality control has improved ("services to citizens generally are provided to a higher standard").

However, there is clearly a lot of work to do and the briefing contains numerous practical suggestions including how to restore the public's faith in their servants.

"Organisations in the state sector must be prepared to listen more, control less and respect the views of those who look for practical solutions to their everyday problems." In short, be public servants.

* Next week: One private sector star who sought and got a top public sector job.