A bad look

Whale Oil blogs:

Recently the role of chief press secretary has made the news after Mike Jaspers moved to a new role. …

The position reports directly to the chief of staff for the prime minister. 

And the key is the recruitment company used is part owned by the partner of the Chief of Staff. The recruitment fee could be as high as $45,000, which is significant.

This is a terrible look. I know the PM’s Chief of Staff and he is a good guy. I don’t think he would have personally been involved in the decision as to which recruitment company to use. But it is still a conflict of interest that should have been avoided.

I don’t even know why a recruitment company was used. Ministerial Services has no less than five “Resourcing Specialists” whose jobs I presume are to recruit staff for ministerial offices.

The company in question is a well respected one, which has done some work for Ministerial Services before. But as far as I can recall a recruitment company has never been used in the past for the role of chief press secretary. This is the most high profile job in the administration and normally you just head hunt whom you want for it. If you advertise there tends to be no shortage of applicants, so it is not a role that has needed a recruitment company. They normally get used for harder to fill roles.

So again I don’t think the Chief of Staff would have been involved in the decision, but I think it does create a conflict which should have been avoided.