Top civil servants afraid to question policies

An internal Government audit has found top civil servants were afraid to challenge poor departmental policies which were often rooted in a minister’s desire to achieve a ‘look-at-what-I-have-delivered’ effect.

Top internal auditors in the civil service criticised the impact of short-term political agendas by successive ministers seeking to implement “exaggerated election manifestos”.

They said many of the failures of the civil service were rooted in the inability of its staff to defend their organisations against “poor policy direction by government”.