03 December 2004
The civil service needs to ditch its 'inherent Victorian values' if it is to better formulate and implement policies in the interests of voters, an outrider for public sector reform has warned.
Ed Straw, author of The dead generalist, a critical pamphlet on the civil service by the think-tank Demos, this week upped the ante in his battle to convince mandarins that reform should go further than they have proposed.
Speaking at a Public Management and Policy Association seminar in London on November 30, Straw reiterated his call for government-appointed chief executives to replace permanent secretaries across Whitehall departments, to overcome a culture that is 'blindly resistant to change'.
He contrasted Whitehall's ability to deliver the government's modern policy plans with that of the private sector. Citing the introduction of resource accounting, he said Whitehall had taken 15 years to implement the change. A similar project in the private sector, he said, would take just three years.
The fault, Straw claimed, lies not with individual civil servants, but with the undynamic and unaccountable culture in which they operate.
'Civil service values are simply Victorian. With the exception of the church, I can't think of an organisation that has so steadfastly defended such values for so long,' he said.
Straw also expanded on his Demos pamphlet. He indicated that the government's current reform plan does not go far enough, although Cabinet secretary Sir Andrew Turnbull has outlined plans for a new skills programme to overcome the traditional resistance to change.
The incoming Freedom of Information Act, for example, would not sufficiently compel departments to become more accountable to their ultimate 'consumers': the public.
'Very occasionally, government secrecy on an issue is necessary, but most of the time it is not. Whether the FoI as it is now being played out will have the desired effect… I'm not sure,' he said.
Asked by Public Finance how the political appointment of civil servants would overcome public cynicism about 'cronyism', Straw concluded: 'It's all about performance. The public would, I'm sure, accept politically appointed civil servants if the government could demonstrate genuine improvements in delivery and policy.'
Civil servants escape discipline over Holyrood
By David Scott
No disciplinary action is to be taken against civil servants criticised in the inquiry into the soaring costs of the Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood in Edinburgh.
Independent civil service commissioner Alistair Macdonald, who was invited by Scottish Executive permanent secretary John Elvidge to advise him on action following the inquiry report, has concluded that the officials concerned acted in good faith and that there was no misconduct.
However, he questioned whether the skills-set and experience of some members of the management team were adequate for the complexity of the task. 'One can now see they were being asked to steer the ship through the high seas in a gale when their experience had been gained from working on inland waterways,' he said.
One of the fiercest critics of the management of the building project, independent MSP Margo MacDonald, described the decision as a whitewash. She said: 'Some of these civil servants should have been sent for retraining, others should have been given early retirement and others should have been forced to look for other employment.'
The Fraser inquiry into the Holyrood project concluded there was no 'single villain' but criticised civil servants over a series of management failures.
Elvidge said that, having reviewed the Fraser findings, Macdonald had 'not found evidence of misconduct which should cause me to consider disciplinary proceedings against any individual civil servant'.
Elvidge acknowledged the commissioner's concern about a decision not to advise ministers in the spring of 1999 about 'risk factors' identified by professional cost consultants, but pointed out that he considered the officials had acted in good faith.
He said action was already in hand to address a number of issues in Macdonald's report. These included the potential to enhance the role of top management within the Executive on decisions about project structure and personnel and steps to improve the training of senior civil servants in business principles and financial management.
Mandarins should have pension tax exemption
By Mark Conrad
Senior civil servants have called on the Treasury to grant them the same pension tax exemption as judges.
Jonathan Baume, general secretary of the FDA, the mandarins' union, warned the government that senior civil servants are 'not fat cats living high on the hog' and should also be exempt from a new tax on pension pots worth more than £1.5m.
Chancellor Gordon Brown introduced the pensions cap as part of his tax simplification regime this year. It will come into force in 2006.
Leading members of the judiciary warned that the new tax would discourage top barristers from accepting appointments to the bench. Judges threatened that 'significant numbers' would resign to protect their retirement plans and last week the lord chancellor, Lord Falconer, granted the judiciary exemption.
But Baume said that selective act failed 'to address the impact this tax will have on other senior public servants… the people whom the government has asked to lead public service reform.'
Falconer denied that he caved in to pressure from his peers. He said the move would merely bring judges into line with other high-earners with non-contributory pensions.
PFdec2004
