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http://thechronicleherald.ca/Canada/9005642.html
'Web of rules' stymies civil service
Mazankowski report takes aim at Tory, Liberal accountability legislation
By BRUCE CHEADLE The Canadian Press
Fri. Feb 22 - 2:17 PM
Former Tory cabinet minister Don Mazankowski, seen in this 2004 file photo, says public servants are stuck in a web of rules that actually hinder their performance. (The Canadian Press / File)
OTTAWA — A federal panel on public service reform says it's time to seek ``concrete plans'' for disentangling accountability rules that have constipated the bureaucracy.
About 30 per cent of government overhead costs now go to complying with rules and reporting requirements, Don Mazankowski said in interview Friday.
``You'll probably hear more of the `web of rules,' where rules are piled upon rules, making it more difficult for public servants,'' said the former Tory finance minister.
``We've certainly had some clear evidence of that in this session and we're going to spend a lot more time on that.''
Undoing the perverse impacts of successive accountability legislation by Liberal and Conservative governments seems an unlikely role for a panel appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper shortly after he took power in 2006.
The Federal Accountability Act was Harper's signature legislation in his first year in office.
But many of the promised provisions on government transparency — such as an overhaul of the Access to Information Act — have never been implemented by the Conservatives.
Instead, government secrecy under the Tories has reached epidemic proportions, with record numbers of complaints about denial of timely access to information that legally should be public.
The public service, meanwhile, is bogged down in paper-pushing rules that stem from the accountability legislation.
Mazankowski, who served as the highly competent minister of everything under Brian Mulroney in the 1980s, was appointed by Harper in 2006 to co-chair the nine-member advisory panel. He observed that the 600 recipients of First Nations funding submit more than 60,000 reports each year to Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.
He said Auditor General Sheila Fraser has told the panel that ``it's not a matter of not enough rules — there are probably too many rules. They're piled one on top of another and they stymie creativity and innovation.''
``As it is now, there's risk-aversion running amok.''
The panel's initial report in 2007 highlighted the problem, and its second report — delivered Friday — ended by noting that in coming months the focus will be on ``concrete plans for reducing the `web of rules' . . . with a view to encouraging a workplace culture of intelligent risk-management and innovation.''
The current report focuses on human resources management, and recommends that bureaucrats undergo routine job-performance reviews.
Managers, said the panel, need greater training and tools to ``address the full spectrum of performance, especially in dealing with poor performers.''
But in a bit of cautionary advice that could apply to the recent contested dismissal of Linda Keen as the head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, the panel recommends there be clear standards set out in advance against which the performance of civil servants can be measured.
Keen was fired for what the government said was failing to adequately address a looming shortage of medical isotopes from the Chalk River nuclear reactor — a health issue many argue was outside her nuclear safety mandate.
As Mazankowski put it in his interview, the goal is to set the bar for bureaucrats early ``and not try to assess the performance of the person after the fact.''
``The whole objective is attract, motivate and retain'' civil service employees, he said.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Canada/9005642.html
'Web of rules' stymies civil service
Mazankowski report takes aim at Tory, Liberal accountability legislation
By BRUCE CHEADLE The Canadian Press
Fri. Feb 22 - 2:17 PM
Former Tory cabinet minister Don Mazankowski, seen in this 2004 file photo, says public servants are stuck in a web of rules that actually hinder their performance. (The Canadian Press / File)
OTTAWA — A federal panel on public service reform says it's time to seek ``concrete plans'' for disentangling accountability rules that have constipated the bureaucracy.
About 30 per cent of government overhead costs now go to complying with rules and reporting requirements, Don Mazankowski said in interview Friday.
``You'll probably hear more of the `web of rules,' where rules are piled upon rules, making it more difficult for public servants,'' said the former Tory finance minister.
``We've certainly had some clear evidence of that in this session and we're going to spend a lot more time on that.''
Undoing the perverse impacts of successive accountability legislation by Liberal and Conservative governments seems an unlikely role for a panel appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper shortly after he took power in 2006.
The Federal Accountability Act was Harper's signature legislation in his first year in office.
But many of the promised provisions on government transparency — such as an overhaul of the Access to Information Act — have never been implemented by the Conservatives.
Instead, government secrecy under the Tories has reached epidemic proportions, with record numbers of complaints about denial of timely access to information that legally should be public.
The public service, meanwhile, is bogged down in paper-pushing rules that stem from the accountability legislation.
Mazankowski, who served as the highly competent minister of everything under Brian Mulroney in the 1980s, was appointed by Harper in 2006 to co-chair the nine-member advisory panel. He observed that the 600 recipients of First Nations funding submit more than 60,000 reports each year to Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.
He said Auditor General Sheila Fraser has told the panel that ``it's not a matter of not enough rules — there are probably too many rules. They're piled one on top of another and they stymie creativity and innovation.''
``As it is now, there's risk-aversion running amok.''
The panel's initial report in 2007 highlighted the problem, and its second report — delivered Friday — ended by noting that in coming months the focus will be on ``concrete plans for reducing the `web of rules' . . . with a view to encouraging a workplace culture of intelligent risk-management and innovation.''
The current report focuses on human resources management, and recommends that bureaucrats undergo routine job-performance reviews.
Managers, said the panel, need greater training and tools to ``address the full spectrum of performance, especially in dealing with poor performers.''
But in a bit of cautionary advice that could apply to the recent contested dismissal of Linda Keen as the head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, the panel recommends there be clear standards set out in advance against which the performance of civil servants can be measured.
Keen was fired for what the government said was failing to adequately address a looming shortage of medical isotopes from the Chalk River nuclear reactor — a health issue many argue was outside her nuclear safety mandate.
As Mazankowski put it in his interview, the goal is to set the bar for bureaucrats early ``and not try to assess the performance of the person after the fact.''
``The whole objective is attract, motivate and retain'' civil service employees, he said.
