Free and frank advice at heart of public service
Six weeks into my new job as State Services Commissioner, I was somewhat surprised to read Dr Chris Eichbaum’s opinion piece Two watchdogs better than one (August 24). Clearly, Eichbaum has a jaded view of the past and an even more sceptical view of the future.
I have spent my first few weeks in this job visiting every chief executive at their place and seeing every department in action. You can tell a lot about an organisation and how its staff are feeling when you visit an office.
What I have seen in my first few weeks impressed me and gives me a great deal of confidence. I saw a public service that is in good heart and home to very capable and professional public servants.
Without exception, all the people I met were focused, committed and passionate about making a difference in our country. This is an important part of what I call the spirit of service and it is alive and well in our public service.
Underlying that spirit of service is political neutrality, and how that neutrality is expressed through free and frank advice. Eichbaum is right, a politically neutral public service is at the heart of our system of government.
In that regard the public service in New Zealand is a constitutional artefact and one, I agree, that needs to be protected and nurtured. That is exactly what we are doing, and I am personally committed to ensuring this happens into the future.
The day before Eichbaum’s article was published, the Policy Project Frameworks were formally launched. The policy project is all about improving the quality of advice that is given to ministers by the public service.
Central to the project, and the frameworks it has developed, is political neutrality and the duty of public servants to give ministers free, frank and fearless advice. The frameworks aren’t responding to some particular event or criticism.
This is the public service striving to continuously improve what we do and how we do it. Political neutrality, and the way that neutrality is demonstrated through free, frank and fearless advice, are core features of the frameworks and absolutely central to the whole Policy Project.
It’s important that we continually review our approach as the environment we work in is constantly changing and evolving.
As the context shifts we must respond. What has remained constant are the bottom line principles of political neutrality and providing free, frank and fearless advice.
The policy project is the latest step in protecting and enshrining these principles. Andrew Kibblewhite, chief executive of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, was appointed as the Head of the Policy Profession by the State Services Commissioner to lead this process. I support this project and I absolutely back Andrew in what he is trying to achieve as Head of Profession.
The Policy Project Frameworks support free, frank and fearless advice as a critical skill for policy professionals and a central plank of quality policy. Advice needs to be written down so it is recorded, available and transparent.
Officials need to be politically savvy, while staying out of the politics and leaving the political choices to the minister. We also need to focus on better long-term outcomes and challenge the status quo.
In addition to this process, the 2013 overhaul of the State Sector Act put in place a legal obligation on every public service chief executive to make sure their department is tendering free and frank advice to ministers. You can’t get clearer than that.
As State Services Commissioner, I have ultimate responsibility for ensuring the state services are politically neutral and providing the government of the day with free, frank and fearless advice.
I take that responsibility very seriously and I will do my absolute best to discharge it with diligence and integrity. It is important that I do.
Eichbaum is right to encourage me in this task. At least I hope that is what he was doing. I look forward to updating him along the way.