The United Kingdom union representing senior Public Servants has attacked the appointments process in Northern Ireland that allows politicians to have the final say on the selection of top officials.
General Secretary of the First Division Association (FDA), Dave Penman (pictured) said there was “dysfunctionality in a process that gives elected Ministers the opportunity to put party politics over public interest”.
Under a change to the rules about a decade ago, the First and Deputy First Ministers conduct the final interviewers of senior candidates.
Mr Penman said Public Servants needed to have the independence and confidence to provide Ministers with the advice they need, “which is not always the advice they want”.
“Whether it’s implementing a new idea for improving educational standards or indeed responding to a public health emergency, Civil Servants will marshal advice from experts, look at costs and outcomes, and then give Ministers options,” Mr Penman said.
“We take a lot of this for granted, but it’s why we have an impartial, permanent Civil Service,” he said.
Mr Penman said Public Servants had a professional obligation to provide the best objective advice to Ministers, then once a decision had been taken, to act on it, regardless of their own political views.
He criticised the delay in advertising and appointing a replacement for the outgoing head of the Northern Ireland Public Service, David Sterling, despite having nine months’ notice of his intention to retire.
“Ministers prevaricated before a national recruitment exercise was launched, overseen by the independent Civil Service Commission,” he said.
“This produced three final candidates, all of whom they considered appointable.”
However, the First and Deputy First Minister failed to select any of the candidates and instead said they would launch another selection process that could last up to a year.
“The delay was bad enough, as it left no opportunity for a handover, but to completely fail to appoint a replacement is simply an abdication of responsibility,” Mr Penman said.
“I recognise that Northern Ireland has a unique political history and that the creation of power-sharing in Stormont reflects that. This, however, is about effective Government,” he said.
Belfast, 17 October 2020
