Scandals raise questions about public sector modernization: Minister

The high-profile debacle under George Radwanski leaves the head of public-service wondering if modernization efforts have moved too far, too fast

In the wake of a high-profile debacle of mismanagement at the Office of the Privacy Commissioner under George Radwanski, even the head of the public service is wondering if efforts to “modernize” management practices in the federal sector have moved “too far, too fast.”

In a speech to the Carleton University’s School of Public Policy and Administration in Ottawa last month, Lucienne Robillard, President of the Treasury Board, said many of the traditional management assumptions in the public sector are being challenged “and in some cases even turned on their head.”

Robillard said “tangible progress” has been made in recent years to move away from the traditional “command-and-control” model and toward a more “values- and results-based approach to management.” But she then asked, “Have we gone too far, too fast? I firmly believe we have to let managers manage. But in our rush to empower people, have we perhaps neglected our stewardship responsibilities by not emphasizing adequate oversight?”

The government has tried on a number of occasions to create a more flexible culture and modernize management practices. Since 1997, for example, Ottawa has been rolling out “modern comptrollership” — an effort to create a culture where decision-making and risk management are the responsibilities of managers at all levels. And in a further bid to shed its image as a “cumbersome and outdated” employer, Ottawa earlier this year introduced bill C-25, far-ranging legislation that proposes reforms for almost every aspect of HR management in the federal public service.

The “have we gone too far, too fast” question was in reference to the increased authority given to managers in recent years, not bill C-25, Robillard said in an interview with Canadian HR Reporter.

There have been some problems in the system, and it is important to ask if those problems arose because managers were given greater authority without systematic changes to increase their accountability, she said.

“I was asking: did we really go too fast and too far without putting in the mechanisms and parameters that we need?” Now is the time to make sure the right monitoring and accountability systems are in place, she added. “That is what we are looking at right now.”

And while C-25 will be giving managers even more authority, particularly over hiring decisions, she said changes coming from C-25 will help correct some of the problems.

If the goal is to have a less command-and-control type system, there first has to be good HR management to make sure staff can function in that system, she said. “It is the basics that perhaps we forgot.”

As for the increased power given to managers to hire under C-25, Robillard said the changes are necessary and will go ahead. “The staffing system in the public sector is very outdated,” she said. “We are not competing right now either with the private sector or with other governments.”

C-25 will give managers more flexibility to hire more rapidly but also includes new provisions to ensure they are accountable for hiring decisions. While the Public Service Commission has been heavily involved with most hiring decisions, that won’t be the case under the new regime. Managers will do the hiring on their own and the commission will serve as a sort of oversight body, reviewing and auditing hiring in the departments.

In her Carleton address, Robillard said the government is disappointed by problems that have recently surfaced. Earlier this year a number of examples of abuse, mismanagement and questionable hiring and spending practices while Radwanski was in charge of the privacy commissioner’s office, came to light. Though the Radwanski affair has been the most high-profile headache for the government, there have been other examples of mismanagement. In July, former assistant deputy minister of Health Canada, Paul Cochrane, was charged with breach of trust and fraud against the government following complaints he took bribes.

“I believe that we have made progress in all of these areas over the last decade. Which is why I am so dismayed by the problems that have come to light recently. Allegations of wrongdoing, malfeasance and even criminality are troubling to us all,” said Robillard.

“It is important to stress that the problems that have arisen are not a reflection of the behaviour of the wider public service. What I have heard recently is not the public service that I know.”

Gene Swimmers, a professor at the Carleton’s School of Public Policy and Administration, said that while the federal government needs to push ahead with efforts to modernize management practices, he is not certain the political willpower is there to see it through.

There are no magic bullet solutions and every policy and initiative will have some flaws. The Radwanski case illustrates that, he said.

But, there are political points to win or lose, and politicians can’t score many points for speeding up the hiring process. But they do suffer big political losses every time a story like Radwanski’s hits the headlines.

He predicted politicians won’t be as enthusiastic about making changes as they once were, choosing instead to “let the system chug along as it has been.”

Which is unfortunate because the system definitely needs fixing, he said. While it is debatable how much of a labour shortage is coming, there is no question the current system makes it difficult to hire, and for that reason alone changes are in order, he added.

When it comes to hiring, the time spent filling most positions could be cut considerably by not running nationwide job competitions. “You only need a nationwide competition on really important jobs,” he said.

And even in those cases, managers and leaders in the public sector are restricted by the merit principal which makes it difficult for them to quickly go out and hire someone they know is a good fit for the job. What is called networking in the private sector is called favouritism or cronyism in the public sector, he said.

“It is more like they are hiring people they trust who they know can do a good job.” But hiring in that fashion is clearly at odds with the merit principal, he said.

“Right now, as a way of surviving, most managers have found ways to skirt the rules,” he said. “That strikes me as sort of morally worse.”

Managers bring someone on board for a secondment or find a way to give someone a job on a temporary basis, he said. Then they may or may not even run a competition. The job could simply be reclassified, or if there is a competition, it is postponed until the person hired on a temporary basis is so proficient on the job that he wins the competition.

“All of these things are not done for nefarious purposes, they are done to get work done and to recruit good people. That is the problem,” he said.

But Pierre de Blois, executive director of the Association of Professional Executives of the Public Service of Canada (APEX), said it’s unlikely there will be any backing down from the commitment to modernize HR in the federal civil service.

The federal public sector is still in need of fundamental reform, he said.

He admitted Robillard’s comments “made us a bit nervous,” at first, but it soon became clear the government appears committed to moving forward.

“There seems to be no backtracking,” he said. “I think most people can make the distinction between what happened with Radwanski and what we are trying to accomplish with bill C-25.”

There is certainly apprehension about how well the changes will be implemented and whether or not the system has the leaders in place to function within a completely new framework. “It is a tall order. We are talking major reforms here,” he said. “People wonder if there will be enough resources, both monetary and physical to do this.” But the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency has been going through similar changes on its own for several years and lessons learned from there will be applied across the system, he added.

He said that while other initiatives have been launched to improve the management system in the public sector, they were never supported with legislative change as is the case with C-25. Without changing the legal framework around staffing and HR it was difficult to strip away the years of practice and procedure that became deeply entrenched in the system. Bill C-25 wipes the slate clean, he said.

The Bill has already passed the House of Commons and could be passed by the Senate and receive royal assent by this month.

Some people claim the Radwanski problems are indicative of widespread problems, but he was a political appointee and didn’t spend much time in the public service, de Blois said. “We have seen some cases of abuse by public servants, but I would say that proportionately, they are much fewer than (political appointees),” he said. APEX has been calling for mandatory training for anyone appointed from outside the public service.

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