83
(c) Paragraph 173(1). In general I regard the measures to give effect to a policy of improving opportunities for local candidates as being within the province of the Government rather than of the Public Service Commission, though it would of course be open to the Commission to make recommendations to Government in the light of its experience in recruiting candidates. In my view the main concern of the Commission in this connection will be to ensure that the fullest possible consideration is given to the selection of local candidates, who possess the prescribed qualifications, to fill vacancies remitted to the Commission. Apart from measures designed to improve the field of suitably qualified locul candidates, progress in this policy wi.1 largely be governed by the remission to the Commission in the first instance of all vacancies except such us it may have been agreed, in consultation between the Governor and the Secretary of State, to reserve for overseas candidates. (In this connection, see also my comments, above, on paragraph 172)
(a) Paragraph 173(111) and (17). I agree that, since an important function of the Co.mission will be to ensure the maintenance of the prescribed standards of qualifications for admission t the public service, it would be appropriate for the Commission to be charged with a review of all recommendations for promotion frone Class to another, in order to ensure that a junior officer is not promoted unless his qualifications are of the standard which would be required in an outside candidate for appointment to the Class to which it is proposed to promote
him.
In res ect of other promotions, where the criterion is the relative efficiency and merit of one officer as compared with another, I feel considerable doubt whether a Commission composed as proposed would be the most effective machinery for reviewing the recommendations of Heads of Departments. Both as regards pr motions and the passing of efficiency bars I should be inclined to feel greater confidence in a system of Departmental promotions boards ɔn which the staff of the Department concerned was represented.
1) Paragraph 174 and 175. This is the first occasion on which it has been proposed that a Colonial Public Services Commission should not include a senior member of the Public Service of the Colony. While I do not demur to the recommendɛtion that the Commission should not include such a member, it is conceivable that a suitable retired officer of the Government may not be available for appointment as Chairman. In that event, it might well be that the only means of ensuring (as is essential) that one at least of the members should be thoroughly well versed in Government procedure and in the bat tr ditions of the public service, would be by the appointment of a senior officer of the Government as the Chairman of the Commission. It would therefore be undesirable to prescribe by Ordinance that the Commission should not include any member of the Public Service of the Colony. Moreover, while the proposed statutory independent character of the Com issi n will undouʊtedly be of advantage in relation to the exercise of its responsibility for making appointments and for reviewing proposals for promotion from one class to
another/