BOOKS
| Date | 01 July 1954 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1954.tb00064.x |
| Published date | 01 July 1954 |
146 JOURNAL OF AFRICAN ADMINISTRATION
officers as water engineers, sanitary inspectors, housing managers, parks super-
intendents, transport managers, etc., who are customarily the technical advisers to
particular functional committees. On occasion such officers should be fully
prepared to advise other committees than their "
own",
on some matter within
their respective functions.
Members also have their
faults-their
idiosyncrasies; we have heard it sug-
gested that membership of a local authority has its own occupational disease, with
several unpleasant symptoms.
The
cure, in so far as the disease exists, is to be
found, we are convinced, in a recognition of the
symptoms-once
recognized and
admitted, they will cease to exist.
(a) First, the member should recognize the limits of his own responsibilities.
He should trust the officer on matters within his own professional competence, and
alsoshould leaveroutine matters such as control of staff, handling of correspondence,
etc., to the officer. We have even heard of a small town where, some years ago,
every Saturday morning the mayor and deputy mayor expected to see the town
clerk's correspondence for the preceding week, and to draft the replies to letters
received!
(b)
Members should show a certain loyalty to their officers, as they are entitled
to loyalty themselves from their officers. Public criticism of officers of the council
should be accepted by the members as criticism of themselves, for they are
ultimately responsible for their officers' actions. Further, officers cannot always
themselves answer such criticism; their spokesmen should be the members.
This
does not mean that the officer should be regarded as being above criticism;
but
the
proper place for deserved criticism is in the committee room, where the officer
has a right to speak in his own defence.
(c)
Members should not attempt to meddle in the execution of works: directions
given by members to foremen or workmen engaged on road or other constructional
works, or to highway maintenance men, etc., can undermine the discipline and
control of the chief officer responsible. Similarly, members should not inspect
council property without first giving warning to the chief officer concerned.
(d) Members should not ask favours of their chief officers; the days when
members expected decorations to their houses to be carried out at the expense
of the council are, fortunately, long since past,
but
the member who asks for free
legal advice on some personal matter of his own, can
put
a town clerk or assistant
solicitor in an embarrassing situation; on other occasions council architects have
been asked to design member's private houses, borough treasurers to help with
personal income tax returns, etc. Care should be taken by both sides to avoid
any sense of personal obligation as between individual officer and member.
In
short, we feel that the present partnership between members and officers is
the basis of true local government as known in this country at the present day.
Without the officers, the members would drift without purpose or direction.
Without the members, the officers would either be subjected to personal abuse
from-every member of the public and be unable to achieve anything, or alternatively
they would become bureaucratic dictators of the very worst type.
BOOKS
The Institutions of Primitive Society. ASeries of Broadcast Talks by E. E.
Evans-Pritchard, Raymond Firth, E. R. Leach, J. G. Peristiany, John Layard,
Max Gluckman, Meyer Fortes and Godfrey Lienhardt. Blackwell, 1954;
78. 6d.; pp. 107.
This
volume contains a series of talks delivered in the B.B.C.
Third
Programme
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