Public service reform and the role of the Auditor General /

The objective of this thesis is to study the involvement of the Auditor General in the proposal, implementation and review of major public service reform initiatives during a period spanning nearly forty years, from the early 1960s to 2001 . This period began with the Glassco Commission and concludes at the end of the term in office of Auditor General Denis Desautels in 2001. It has been demonstrated throughout this work that the role of the OAG has varied, from proponent to critic, from instigator to reviewer. In the past forty years the OAG's mandate has changed to meet the requirements of critical analysis of government operations and this has been aptly demonstrated in the office's relationship to the issue of public service reform. It has been argued that many of the problems facing the public service are cultural in nature. Reform initiatives have taken on a number of various forms with each addressing a different set of priorities. However, there has been a great deal of consistency in the cultural values that these initiatives articulate. Throughout this thesis attention has been paid to values. Values define a culture and cultural change is required within the Canadian federal public service. How and when this cultural change will occur is but one question to be answered. During the period under consideration in this thesis the government undertook several significant public service reform initiatives. Those examined in this thesis include: The Royal Commission on Government Organization, The Special Committee on the Review of Personnel Management and the Merit Principle, The Royal Commission on Financial Management and Accountability, Increased Ministerial Authority and Accountability, Public Service 2000, Program Review and finally La Releve. The involvement, or interest, of the Auditor General's Office on the subject of public service reform is generally articulated through the means of its annual reports to Parliament although there have been supplementary undertakings on this issue. Such material relevant to this study include: Towards Better Governance: Public Service Reform in New Zealand (1984-94) and its Relevance to Canada and Reform in the Australian Public Service. Annual reports to Parliament include: "Values, Service and Performance," (1990), "Canada's Public Service Reform and Lessons Learned from Selected Jurisdictions," (1993), "Maintaining a Competent and Efficient Public Service," (1997), and "Expenditure and Work Force Reduction in Selected Departments,"

Studies of some cocondensations of nickel atoms with unsaturated organic ligands and with mixed ligand systems

The cocondensation of nickel with a number of unsaturated ligands was studied, as was the cocondensation with a number of mixed ligand systems. Enamines were found not to react with nickel while acrylonitrile was polymerized. In the mixed ligand syst.ems different products were obtained than when the ligands were cocondensed individually. Cocondensations of benzyl halide/allyl halide mixtures gave unstable products that were not observed when the halides were cocondensed individually. The effect of Kao-Wool insulation on nickel/benzyl halide cocondensations was found to be significant. Kao-Wool caused the bulk of the benzyl halide to be polymeri zed to a number of poly-benzylic species. An alkali metal reactor was designed for the evaporation of sodium and potassium atoms into cold solutions of metal halide and an or ganic substrate. This apparatus was used to synthesize Ni(P¢3 )3' but proved unsuccessful for synthesizing a nickel-enamine compound.