David Lillis: Holding Chief Executives and Boards to Account

An Article in Stuff

An article in Stuff of 4 September makes compelling reading (Penfold, 2026). So, one Chief Executive has gone, following a suspension. I will refrain from comment here, as I know former and/or current staff at the relevant place of work and I must be discreet. Simply, the public should note that an investigation will examine allegations of bullying, sexual and other harassment and retaliation; a culture of fear and retribution that suppressed staff from raising concerns; the handling of complaints; confidentiality and privacy practices; the use of non-disclosure agreements; and the adequacy of oversight of board and management.

I have seen all of the above behaviours, and more, in other public service environments. In addition, I have spoken to or interviewed over 70 people, most of them current or former public servants and many of them female, who have told me about bullying that they have experienced or observed directly. Unfortunately, similar investigations of other public service workplaces are in order and several of us have been fighting against mistreatment of staff for several years, but so far to little effect.

I can no longer recognise the public service that I joined in 1994. Back then, for the most part staff treated each other with respect, staff were appointed mainly on merit, and any violations of political neutrality that came to our notice appeared to be small scale and relatively innocuous. In the 1990s, essentially a bully was little more than somebody who talked over others at meetings, and we could never have imagined the appalling transformation that has taken place since then. Today, in addition to many good managers, we have far too many grossly overpaid but underqualified and inexperienced managers who routinely destroy the careers of unwanted or disliked staff though chronic and severe maltreatment.

What I Saw

I saw the bullying going on around me when I worked in the public sector, not during the 1990s but between the early 2000s and my retirement, and it was then and continues to be, a national disgrace. People who held irrelevant and modest qualifications and having no particular achievement to their names, coming in off the street onto very high salaries, to manage teams of experienced experts and then making life intolerable for their staff and abusing experts out of employment.

I observed physical intimidation, framing of disliked staff in order to make them look incompetent, deliberate insertion of errors into reports written by disliked staff and then dissemination of those reports, plagiarism, deliberate isolation of disliked staff – and much more. Of course, further bullying from Human Resources if anyone went to them for assistance. And I have seen first-hand the very damaging effects on people who have been treated like this and have lost their careers.

Little or No Accountability

Quite apart from a very clear deficit in political neutrality, we see little or no accountability. Not only a considerable degree of bloat, but in my view, we have also witnessed a serious decline in average capability. My own discussions with former employers who have continued bullying for many years, have revealed a complete lack of contrition and a total absence of accountability. Human Resources is a very serious problem, as are Boards that are held to account very rarely. In addition, we see that the highly-remunerated managers and executives retain their public-funded salaries and continue their bad behaviour until retirement – after damaging dozens of others.

Fixing the Problem

The public service must be re-developed from the ground-up. It needs to be made clear that it serves both the people and the Government of the day. We need stronger standards and expectations around the appointment and accountability of Chief Executives and Boards.

We must ensure appointment of all staff on the basis of merit because for many years rapid promotion often has gone to the most aggressive personalities or else to those who adhere to particular ideological or political world views – almost the opposite of a genuine meritocracy.

The view that a person does not need subject matter expertise to be a manager leads to all kinds of problem, principally decision-making going to the less qualified and the less capable. It has led to the emergence of opportunists who want the prestige and remuneration that goes with the management stream, but without putting in the years of effort required to develop skills and expertise. Thus, we need stronger policies around employment and promotion.

The role of Human Resources must be re-configured to ensure optimum capability and productive workplaces, rather than supporting bullying Chief Executives and bullying managers. The competency-based interview must be dispensed with, as it is a flawed mechanism for selecting staff, allowing hiring managers or senior executives to appoint on the basis of everything but competence.

The Public Service Commission must be made to lift its game and its commissioners made to justify their very generous public-funded salaries. It must step in and enforce high expectations and ensure that the Model Standards Speaking up (Public Service Commission, 2025) and the Code of Conduct for the Public Service (Public Service Commission, 2026) have genuine force because at present they are being ignored in some Ministries.

Keeping Up the Fight

We have not given up the fight. A group of us has attempted to speak to one Ministry that has to do with education, but we have been ordered not to communicate with the relevant executive, the Deputy Secretary Education Workforce, the person who is responsible for education sector workforce supply and leadership, sector payroll, collective bargaining and pay equity.

Perhaps media exposure of negative behaviours and also of the kind of avoidance that we observe from that particular ministry, may create the necessary precedent, but here we see only the tip of a very large iceberg. The present situation is not acceptable to the taxpayers of New Zealand and the time for change is long overdue.

My own last communication with the Public Service Commission some five weeks ago, requesting a meeting with Commissioners, has not been responded to as yet, but I will remind them very soon and I remain hopeful.

Dr David Lillis trained in physics and mathematics at Victoria University and Curtin University in Perth, working as a teacher, researcher, statistician and lecturer for most of his career. He has published many articles and scientific papers, as well as a book on graphing and statistics.

Reference

Penfold, P. (2026). A top public official is suddenly gone. Nobody will answer this question
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/361029291/top-public-official-suddenly-gone-nobody-will-answer-question

Public Service Commission (2025). Model Standards: Speaking Up
https://www.publicservice.govt.nz/guidance/model-standards-speaking-up

Public Service Commission (2026). The Code of Conduct for the Public Sector
https://www.publicservice.govt.nz/guidance/the-code-of-conduct-for-the-public-sector