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Report finds serious management failures at Department of Justice

Updated 17.49 The Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald says she will implement a comprehensive pro...
Newstalk
Newstalk

17.01 28 Jul 2014


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Report finds serious managemen...

Report finds serious management failures at Department of Justice

Newstalk
Newstalk

17.01 28 Jul 2014


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Updated 17.49

The Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald says she will implement a comprehensive programme of change at her department as she has published the report of the independent review group on the Department of Justice.

She has described the key findings of the report as "serious and hard-hitting".

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It reveals serious management failures. It found there was a "closed secretive and silo driven culture" with significant leadership and management problems.

It also found there were ineffective management processes and structures to provide strong strategic oversight of the key agencies, "both to hold them accountable and to ensure their effectiveness is maximised".

Following on from the report the Secretary-General of the department, Brian Purcell, is to be reassigned to other duties in the public service.

The new Secretary-General is to be recruited through an open competition.

Ms Fitzgerald said that "the newly-appointed Secretary General will play a pivotal role in managing and embedding the recommendations of the Report in the workings of the Department".

The report found that the department had developed a "deferential relationship with An Garda Síochána".

Department must become "21st century organisation"

In response, Ms Fitzgerald stated that "the planned establishment of a new Independent Policing Authority will assist in providing a valuable additional layer of transparency and public accountability between the Department and gardai".

The report concluded that "the overall Departmental culture has not changed or adapted to the world in which it now operates".

Ms Fitzgerald added that the Department of Justice "must become a 21st century organisation to meet 21st century challenges".

"Leadership and management practices in place in the department must equally be transformed to provide an effective workforce setting in which all staff can achieve their best" she said.

She also noted the report was constructive in its criticism. "While the findings of this report are challenging, the report is also highly constructive in that it maps-out, though its extensive recommendations, the pathways forward for the department".

The key recommendations from the report are for a programme of fundamental and sustained organisational and cultural change and renewal.

It also calls for a change in the leadership and management routines, systems and practices to underpin both the performance of the Department and key agencies, and an upfront commitment to additional skilled and specialised resources,training and development programmes to lead and drive the change programme.

Ms Fitzgerald told the Right Hook here on Newstalk that while there is need for reform, her department is up to the challenge.

Read the full report here


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