XN000022-1974-03-14 — Page 9

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Thursday, March 14, 1974

CIVIL SERVICE CAN BE IMPROVED

Faster Promotion Recommended

The Hon. P.G. Williams today spoke at length on improving the

quality and performance of the public service which costs 43 per cent

of recurrent expenditure.

Quality of the material employed must be the basis of the quality

and performance of the service as a whole, he stressed during the resumed

Budget debate.

Mr. Williams believed that the government, like busy managers,

would often not face the fact at the end of a probation period that an

employee was not up to standard.

He suggested that a pre-engagement course for various grades

be conducted to test the individual and find out if the newcomer was

the right material as well as giving him some pre-training,

The cost of this non-productive period, he said, could quickly

be recovered by better material entering the service.

Mr. Williams questioned the standard of confidential reporting

on officers.

"Too often here there is a tendency to shirk from criticism if

this must be brought to the notice of the individual concerned with

results in the end both unfair to the person and most harmful to the

service," he said.

/On promotion,