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John Whitehead - Source: Q+A
State service bosses will work within whatever limits the Government puts on their spending, but there were "always limits", Treasury head John Whitehead says.
The State Services Commission today released a further five of its reviews into the state sector. The first tranche was released last September.
The 11 completed reviews showed the public sector needed to be better at measuring results and comparing them to initial aims.
Overall, the public service was good and the reviews pointed at areas of improvement to become a great sector, State Services Commissioner Iain Rennie said.
The reviews confirmed the state sector was strong on delivering results the Government wants now, but was not so good at working on medium or long term work programmes.
Whitehead said it was amazing what could be achieved when a bit of pressure was put on.
State sector bosses wanted to know what the Government wanted and what the parameters were and they would work to achieve it.
"Obviously of course there are always limits."
New Zealand's public service was a good one but over the last 10 or 15 years there has not been enough drive to achieve more, Rennie said.
"No matter what the fiscal situation is, I think it's important for the system to be pushing stronger."
Previously there has been poor information for helping agencies improve their efficiency and these reviews would help that.
Reviews were released today for the Ministry of Social Development, New Zealand Transport Agency, Treasury, Inland Revenue and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.
New Zealand Trade and Enterprise were the only one of these departments to be rated ''weak'' in certain areas. The review raised concern in the areas of vision, strategy and purpose, culture and values and leadership and workforce development.
It said the changing environment, stronger focus on exports and emerging nations, had raised the bar for NZTE.
The agency had also been without a permanent chief executive for some time.
All five departments were rated as ''needing development'' in the information management area.
IRD's review said improving information technology was a priority area.
Treasury also had a number of areas ''needing development''. Whitehead said he was in complete agreement with the issues raised, many of which were in the leadership and direction area.
"We asked for a tough review and we got one."
Reviews for the Ministry of Education, Statistics New Zealand, Crown Law, Ministry of Women's Affairs and Ministry of Pacific Islands Affairs will be released later this year.
