CONFUSION and lack of trust between those who run the
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nationalised industries and politicians and civil servants are the main reasons for the lack of success at the National Freight Corporation and the National Bus Company.
That is the verdict of the long-awaited report on the nationalised industries published by the GovernmentE National Economic Develop. ment Office.
A large part of the report iE devoted to an analysis of what has gone wrong with the nationalised industries.
And the report says that the industries should have a rela tionship that is carried on "al arms-length with the Depart ment and the Minister" concerned.
The report has been compiled by a National Economic Development Office team and their findings represent an indictment on industries where "there is no framework for reaching longterm agreement on objectives and strategy." _ "The repori highlights the ineffectiveness of present systems for measuring the performance of nationalised industries and assessing managerial competence," it says.
But it says that NEDO recognise that "there is no single right solution" and that different routes to the desired objectives may be needed.
Among the proposals that the report makes is one for a policy council for each industry, composed of trade unions, civil servants, the chairman of the industry's board, Treasury officials, as well as representatives from the appropriate Government department and a consumer point of view.
The council would form the policy of the industry and would be accountable to Parliament for their actions through the annual report of the industry concerned. The report hopes that the Select Committee on Nationalised Industries would be better informed by the more detailed information that would be provided by the system.
According to the report the chairman and members of the board of directors of the industry would be accountable to the policy committee and not as now to Parliament.
But a safeguard would be built in to the policy council in that the Gdvernment would be able to intervene through the policy council in the industry, but it would not be able to intervene directly into the actions of the board of the industry. The report also proposes that the Government should find a more rational means of financing the nationalised industries to take account of the different ways in which the industries operate.
The report proposals are aimed at giving the financial arms of the Government a more direct understanding of the ways industry operates. And it is clear that the report' considers that more co-operation with trade unions is long overdue, but it does not intend to give a lead to other reports which are being prepared on industrial co-operations and democracies.
The policy councils are seen by the Government as being extra layers in the bureaucracy of the nationalised industries. They are not seen as replacing any of the functions that are performed elsewhere.