{"id":143963,"date":"2021-11-08T01:06:15","date_gmt":"2021-11-08T01:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?p=143963"},"modified":"2021-11-08T01:06:15","modified_gmt":"2021-11-08T01:06:15","slug":"mandarins-urged-to-stop-giving-top-roles-to-their-personal-favourites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/mandarins-urged-to-stop-giving-top-roles-to-their-personal-favourites\/","title":{"rendered":"Mandarins urged to stop giving top roles to their personal favourites"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Whitehall &#8216;must end jobs for the boys&#8217; as think-tank urges mandarins to stop giving top roles to their personal favourites<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Policy Exchange calls for reforms to open up \u2018closed shop\u2019 of senior civil service\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Scandal over David Cameron\u2019s boss Lex Greensill\u00a0 raised serious questions<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Cabinet Office minister Steve Barclay promised to study the report \u2018carefully\u2019<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Mandarins must be banned from giving top Whitehall jobs to their personal favourites, a think-tank report backed by ministers urges today.<\/p>\n<p>The Policy Exchange calls for major reforms to open up the \u2018closed shop\u2019 of senior civil service appointments.<\/p>\n<p>Many posts are not advertised to outsiders and important changes demanded more than 150 years ago have still not been implemented, it warns.<\/p>\n<p>The study says the scandal over David Cameron\u2019s banker boss Lex Greensill \u2013 who was given a Downing Street pass and a CBE by the head of the civil service at the time \u2013 raised serious questions about the power of \u2018personal patronage\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Last night Cabinet Office minister Steve Barclay promised to study the report \u2018carefully\u2019.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2021\/11\/07\/23\/50184647-10175871-image-a-2_1636328863216.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Last night Cabinet Office minister Steve Barclay promised to study the report \u2018carefully\u2019<\/p>\n<p>He said: \u2018We must ensure that all civil service appointments are on merit and ensure that we attract the best outside talent.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>In a foreword to the think-tank paper, former Treasury mandarin Lord Macpherson says the role of officials demands more scrutiny and \u2018self-regulation has failed\u2019. He added that tougher powers are needed to safeguard against conflicts of interest.<\/p>\n<p>The paper points out the principle of civil servants being chosen on the basis of open competition and merit was established by the landmark Northcote-Trevelyan report of 1854.<\/p>\n<p>But its recommendation that internal promotions should be regulated by law has never been implemented.<\/p>\n<p>Although all senior civil service roles are meant to be advertised externally, officials are allowed to ignore this guidance.<\/p>\n<p>Even the post of \u2018programme director for civil service modernisation and reform\u2019 was filled last year without any competition at all.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, there is no independent oversight of appointments unless they are advertised externally.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2021\/11\/08\/00\/50185019-10175871-image-a-17_1636329654734.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The study says the scandal over David Cameron\u2019s banker boss Lex Greensill \u2013 who was given a Downing Street pass and a CBE by the head of the civil service at the time \u2013 raised serious questions about the power of \u2018personal patronage\u2019<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2021\/11\/08\/00\/50185021-10175871-image-m-19_1636329663120.jpg\" height=\"721\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Many posts are not advertised to outsiders and important changes demanded more than 150 years ago have still not been implemented, it warns<\/p>\n<p>The Civil Service Commission watchdog has \u2018no power to investigate internal competitions for vacancies\u2019, which \u2018arguably creates a powerful incentive for existing civil servants\u2019 not to advertise prestigious posts.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s report calls for this loophole to be closed, as well as demanding that all senior vacancies be advertised unless authorised by a Minister.<\/p>\n<p>It says a recent constitution law should be amended to make it clear that the \u2018merit principle\u2019 applies to all Whitehall positions.<\/p>\n<p>Report author Benjamin Barnard said: \u2018The civil service is an international outlier in how some of its most senior members are appointed.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Too often it can operate like a closed shop, with far too little independent oversight or transparency and the top jobs in Whitehall being appointed without even being advertised to outsiders. The era of self-regulation looks outdated.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-10175871\/Think-tank-urges-mandarins-stop-giving-roles-personal-favourites.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whitehall &#8216;must end jobs for the boys&#8217;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":143962,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23056],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mandarins urged to stop giving top roles to their personal favourites - Pre Coin News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/mandarins-urged-to-stop-giving-top-roles-to-their-personal-favourites\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mandarins urged to stop giving top roles to their personal favourites - 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