Call for audit of public sector's ability to provide "free and frank" advice
Dr Chris Eichbaum says the Office of the Auditor-General needs to conduct an inquiry into whether the public service is providing government with "free and frank" advice.
A Victoria Business School academic says the Office of the Auditor-General needs to conduct an inquiry into whether the public service is providing government with "free and frank" advice.
Reader in Government and Victoria Business School Associate Dean Dr Chris Eichbaum told an Institute of Public Administration of New Zealand seminar at The Beehive yesterday that providing such advice is a constitutional necessity, but the process largely goes unchecked.
"Over time, and indeed over successive governments, there has been an increasing tendency for the public service to tell the government of the day what it wants to hear, sometimes at the expense of what it needs to hear," Dr Eichbaum says.
"No one is disputing that central government, in many respects, enjoys a mandate from the electorate – and professional public servants respect that.
"In turn, the public has every right to expect that any government will respect that it is the constitutional obligation of the public service to give the government its best advice."
Dr Eichbaum is not the first to call for an inquiry into the public sector's ability to provide free and frank advice.
"Last year, former Prime Minister the Rt Hon Sir Geoffrey Palmer called for the establishment of a Royal Commission into the State Services, informed largely by a concern that advice was not always responsible.
"Though widely supported, calls to establish a Royal Commission have been consistently rejected," he says.
Given that Parliament is currently between elections, now is the ideal time for an inquiry according to Dr Eichbaum.
"The public needs to be assured that our ministers are receiving free and frank advice in order to make responsible decisions.
"The only way to get that assurance is through an independent assessment by the Office of the Auditor-General."