Senior civil servants’ union says Arlene Foster and Michelle O’Neill presiding over ‘dysfunctionality’

In a highly unusual intervention which reflects private concern expressed by several senior civil servants in conversations with the News Letter, the union said that the inability of the first and deputy first ministers to agree on filling the key role was evidence of political “dysfunctionality”.

Writing in today’s News Letter, the First Division Association (FDA) general secretary Dave Penman denounces the “debacle” over which Stormont’s leaders have presided where they “prevaricated” by not even advertising the job for seven months after they knew the head of the civil service was retiring.

Under a change to the rules about a decade ago, the first and deputy first ministers inserted themselves as the final interviewers of candidates, allowing them to hand-pick from those before them.

However, on this occasion, despite having waited so long to advertise the post, they turned down all three final applicants.

In robust language, Mr Penman, whose union represents civil servants from grade 7 (middle management) upwards, set out fundamental opposition to what is happening and said that the ministers should no longer have their current role.

Mr Penman said: “The failure to appoint a new head is not only a failure of collective leadership but demonstrates the dysfunctionality of a process that allows elected ministers to put party politics over public interest.

“Of course the first minister and deputy first minister should have confidence in whoever is selected to lead the NICS. They should help shape the criteria for the role and set out the type of candidate they want, but this debacle clearly demonstrates they should not have the final say on the appointment of civil servants at any level.

“The people of Northern Ireland deserve better and that requires a strong, permanent, professional and impartial civil service.”

Referring to the breadth of what civil servants do and its importance to an orderly system of government, Mr Penman said: “We take a lot of this for granted but it’s why we have an impartial, permanent civil service....the separation of the powers from ministers to hire and fire is hard wired in to our system, as it makes for better government.

“The civil service also acts as a check and balance on ministers. They are a source of challenge on propriety and value for money, have a professional obligation to uphold the rule of law, and are there to serve the public interest.”

Last week Mrs Foster and Ms O’Neill indicated that there will be no head of the civil service for at least a year and the historic role may be radically reshaped before an appointment is made.

Facing questions from the Assembly committee which scrutinises their department, the first and deputy first ministers said that they wanted to appoint an “interim” official to lead Stormont’s 23,000 civil servants.

At the committee, Mrs Foster defended the seven-month delay in even advertising the job, and said that “even in quick time the [entire recruitment] process would take six months”. In this case, it took nine months.

Ms O’Neill said they were “also re-looking at the role of head of the civil service, looking at governance models elsewhere and is there a better way for us to do it”. She added: “Perhaps that maybe then will help in attracting more candidates to come forward as well.”

Ms O’Neill said they were “very keen to move this on as quickly as possible, not least because of the challenges that we’ve already stated ... Covid, Brexit, civil service reform, the New Decade, New Approach commitments – all the things we’ve said that we want to deliver on.”

She said that Stormont Castle is working with the Strategic Investment Board (SIB) to find an interim replacement and Mrs Foster said that person would be appointed “probably for a year”.

When pressed by independent MLA Trevor Lunn on whether the rejected candidates could reapply, Mrs Foster suggested that they probably could do so but said that they did not expect the interim position to be filled by someone interested in the post long-term.

Mr Penman said: “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.”

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