H—l4

The procedure suggested last year for the making of senior appointments was as follows : (a) The Commission, as now, to advertise vacancies and normally set up a selection committee to advise on the suitability of applicants and of other available persons. (b) Where the position to be filled is that of a Permanent Head or closely related position, the Commission to have regard to the views of Ministers on the suitability of a proposed appointee. (c) The Commission, before announcing an appointment, to advise applicants of the intended appointee, and applicants then to have a right to make any representations to the Commission further to their application. (d) In the light of such representations and of any other facts, the Commission to make a final appointment; no appeal to lie against appointments to senior positions filled in accordance with this procedure, but otherwise appeal rights to remain as at present. SU9II a procedure is considered to protect adequately the rights of an officer. On the second point, appointments of outside applicants to jobs within the Service can be made only where the outside applicant is in a great degree more suitable for appointment than the applicant from within the Service. Surely, in the interests of efficiency generally, the appointment of the most efficient applicant should be made, irrespective of whether he grew up inside or outside the Public Service. Preference could continue to be given to the public servant where suitability was equal. SENIORITY The Commission is charged with the statutory function of appointing to a vacant position the most efficient and suitable officer available, and it is only where two officers are deemed equal that reference is made to relative seniority. This requirement necessitated maintaining master personnel records in strict order of seniority, and the addition to the permanent staff of 13,000 former temporary employees (under the provisions of the Public Service Amendment Act, 1946) has so increased this work and the preparation of the annual list of employees for gazetting as to require a review of existing office methods. A simplified formula for determining seniority has been devised and will come into operation on the Ist April, 1950. The advantages claimed for the new method are : (a) Scope for mechanization of records. (b) Elimination of much of the work now necessary to determine relative seniority among a staff of nearly 28,000 permanent employees. (0) Facility of reference, in that relative seniority could be determined very simply by reference to the annual list. (d) Expedition in the preparation of the annual list. On the introduction of the new formula, seniority will be determined by reference to maximum salary coupled with the year of entry to that grade. Where this does not Tesolve seniority as between two officers, the officer with the longest continuous permanent service is deemed to be the senior. This method limits the determination of seniority to three readily ascertainable factors, all of which will appear in the annual list, thereby enabling every officer to ascertain his seniority in relation to any other officer in the Service.

12