THE Public Service Management Bill is aimed at creating a more efficient, more accountable and more customer-focused service to the taxpayer and citizen, the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, said yesterday. He was speaking on the publication of the new Bill, which proposes the most radical restructuring of the public service in more than 70 years.
If passed by the Oireachtas, the new Bill will devolve responsibility for the management of almost 200,000 public service workers on to the secretaries of departments. These will be redesignated "secretary-generals" to emphasise their new and more autonomous role.
They, in turn, will be able to assign greater autonomy to line managers within their departments. They will have overall responsibility for the operational effectiveness of their departments and will prepare strategy statements which will have to be laid before the Oireachtas for approval within 60 days of the Bill becoming law.
While all those working in Government departments will be affected to some extent by the changes, it will be the State's 29,000 civil servants who will feel the greatest impact. They will be required to adopt a more flexible approach to working hours, agree to retraining and accept a new disciplinary code.
This code will apply to all civil servants up to and including the assistant principal officer grade. At present, civil servants can only be dismissed by a decision of Government. In future, only civil servants at secretary, assistant secretary and principal officer level will retain this privilege.
Outputs will be established for each department for the services they provide to the public. Staff will be made accountable for achieving these outputs and performance-related payments are to be introduced. A private consultancy firm, Hay (MSL), has already been retained by the Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn, to advise him on how to introduce performance measurement into the Civil Service.
However, ministers will retain responsibility for policy, legislative programmes and how resources are provided to their departments. They will also retain residual discretionary powers over departmental administration.
Introducing the Bill yesterday, Mr Bruton said it was the first major reform of Civil Service structures since the Ministers and Secretaries Act of 1924. He gave a commitment that there would be full consultation with the trade unions and staff associations on how the changes were implemented.
"I hope that discussion on the Public Service Management Bill will focus especially on the external result that is being aimed at, rather than exclusively focusing on the internal aspects. We want a highly-motivated, team-working and well-trained public service he said.
Mr Bruton wanted to see "Government offices which deal with the working public open either in the evenings, at weekends or at times when members of the working public can conveniently visit them to talk over their concerns".
He continued: "Secondly I would like to see a pattern established whereby an individual public servant will take on herself, or himself, to see through to a conclusion a particular query or concern raised by an individual member of the public. The passing of files from one office to another can be very off-putting for members of the public and frustrating. We need to humanise and personalise the service given.
"Third, I would like to see a big emphasis on training and retraining within the public service. The Bill and the Strategic Management Initiative that underpins it are both about managing internal change and responding to internal change".
The Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn, said the new Bill's provisions would "enhance the management, effectiveness and transparency of operations of departments" and "increase the accountability of civil servants".
Secretary-generals would have far greater operational autonomy than department secretaries. Work would be organised in a more focused way and in a manner which more clearly delineated the responsibilities of individual civil servants. "This will, I hope, yield better value for the taxpayers and, no less importantly, enhance the job satisfaction of civil servants."
The Minister of State with responsibility for the Strategic Management Initiative, Ms Avril Doyle, pointed out that 192,000 people worked in the public service at a cost to the taxpayer of £4.8 billion. She said it was essential that they provided an efficient, customer-focused service.