On the day before April Fool's day Jack Waterford wrote an appraisal of “Ahead of the Game”, the Moran Committee's report on the reform of the public service. As Jack pointed out it was a document mired in sludge. More than that it squibbed on making any real recommendations for change in the public service.

It was indicative of a service that has lost its way and as Jack pointed is in thrall to the demands of the Beloved Leader whoever he/she may be at the time. It is not possible to have a citizen-centric public service if the demand is that it serve only one citizen, the primus inter pares or as Comrade Gough described him the Prima Donna Assoluta.

The sludge like nature of , “Ahead of the Game”, has been pointed out by Paddy Gourley and John Nethercote in the the Public Service Informant published today, 5 April. Both are underwhelmed by both its language and its content.

It is amazing that the Committee treated the reform as a work in progress that might take years to implement. There are plenty of models around the world that could have been emulated. Take NYC for example, it administers services to 10 million people, with an administrative cadre that in total is hardly bigger than the Senior Executive Service, which now numbers 3,000. The City delivers services on behalf of itself, the state, and the federal government. It has tough performance measures and publishes the outcomes for all to see. It has permanent interaction with its constituents through its plain English website and its complaints lines. Every New Yorker from the richest investment banker to the homeless seems able to use the system and to secure the services they require from library cards through hospitalisation to housing.

Of course the Beloved Leader in NYC doesn't need to use the system to generate publicity by manufacturing policy to fit the 24 hour news cycle. Apart from preferring to stay in the background, he owns his own television network. Understanding communication also helps him with the sludge.