Sessional_Paper_1932 — Page 51

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The Director of Public Works has to assist him two Assistant Directors of Public Works (exclusive of the Assistant Director of Public Works in charge of Waterworks, Con- struction), a Technical Secretary and a Secretary. The Commissioners recommend that the two posts of Assistant Directors of Public Works be abolished and replaced by one Deputy Director of Public Works. The Technical Secretary should be retained, but he should be a more junior officer than the present holder of the post. For the Secretary should be substituted a Chief Clerk, who should be a Class I officer of the Senior Clerical and Accounting Staff, to control the Correspondence Office, which appears to be somewhat neglected. The first thing that requires attention here is the filing system-the present one being far too cumbersome and detrimental to efficiency.

38. The Technical Secretary would do most of the "hack" work of the department, such as scrutinising allotment vouchers, adjustment of votes, and financial matters general- ly in connection with votes and estimates.

39. The Deputy Director would carry out the greater part of the routine matters that are now done by the Director. He would keep in general touch with matters of policy and sub-departmental works and contracts, (though more from the clerical and financial than the constructional standpoint), sign all cheques, and deal with all subordinate and clerical staff matters and programmes of work. As deputy to the Director of Public Works he would have power to authorize work on open votes, and local store purchases.

40. The Director would deal with all matters of policy with the Government on the one side, and the executive engineers on the other. He would normally only deal directly with the senior European staff. He would have power to authorize work on open votes up to a total of $500 in respect of each specific work, and similarly to authorize local store purchases up to $500 and to accept tenders up to $1,000, without prior reference to the Colonial Secretariat; subsequent notification being sufficient.

41. The Commissioners, though admitting that the head quarters staff is fully occupied under the present organization of the department, feel justified in recommend- ing reductions in that staff on three grounds. Firstly, there is the diminished amount of work with which the department as a whole will have to deal; secondly, there is the re- commendation for the entire severance from the department of Waterworks; and thirdly, is the fact that much of the congestion of work at the central office is caused by faulty organization. The broad outline given above of the duties of the Director and the head- quarters staff indicates the lines on which reorganization must take place. There should be decentralization of responsibility; not enough is given to the executive engineers. Some of those who appeared before the Commission showed a reluctance to accept re- responsibility. It cannot be too strongly emphasized that responsibility is a. necessary adjunct to the office of Executive Engineer.

Under the grouping of sub-departments as advocated by the Commissioners the relative importance of executive engineers will be greatly enhanced. To make the scheme workable they must be entrusted with full control of their sub-departments. The directorate will dictate policy; the execution of the work should be for the engineers in charge. The work of the central office can be further alleviated, without throwing any more on to the sub-departments, by requiring the public to correspond direct with the head of the sub-department concerned and not through the directorate, as at present. The sub-departmental head will only need to consult the Director if some matter of policy is involved. Minuting, in cases where the sub-departmental head is the origin of complete information, should be done by the Executive Engineer concerned, on the original C.S.o. file, which should then pass through the Director or Deputy Director of Public Works, who would merely initial the minute if he agreed with it, otherwise he would write a following minute containing his own observations and recommendations. This would save duplication of minutes and files, would give the Colonial Secretary fuller information, and would also give him an insight into the capabilitities of the Executive Engineers. This system already obtains within the Secretariat. Executive engineers should also be per- mitted to spend up to $250 on local purchases for works already approved by the Legis- lature, without having to obtain special authority.

42. The Commissioners while unable to go too closely into the details of the sub- ordinate staffs, foremen, messengers, coolies, etc., of the sub-departments came to the conclusion that a reduction of 20% of the cxisting subordinate staff, corresponding to that made in the engineer and overseer grades, should be recommended; exactly how