InBrief

Today’s press, together with a number of radio programmes, featured a story on the findings of a NSW Audit Office report titled Efficiency of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.�

At first glance the report, with its dry recommendations for the appointment of an executive director and improved reporting and accountability systems, seems unlikely to excite much interest on the part of the public.�

Closer inspection of the recommendations betrays the residual tension between the touchstones of efficiency in public sector management on the one hand and the principles of criminal justice on the other.

The problem, according to the report, was not that the Office was inefficient, but that the auditors were unable to decide whether it was efficient or not because of the insufficiency of measures to assess efficiency.

I note that the report praised the skilful, committed and hardworking staff in the ODPP and recognised the high regard in which the Office is held in Australia and internationally.�

Whilst the drive for efficient delivery of public services is laudable, as the Chief Justice has said about assessing court performance, “not everything that counts can be counted”.�� The report recognizes that many factors that affect efficiency are beyond the control of the ODPP.� Whatever measures are put in place to improve efficiency in the ODPP, I urge the Government to be careful not to damage the independence of the Office or impair the delivery of high quality legal services to the community in the process.� The ODPP is not comparable with a private legal firm, although the report seeks to draw such comparisons.�The Director of Public Prosecutions, his staff and the Crown Prosecutors act on behalf of all of us.�Unlike private solicitors, they cannot pick and choose the cases they want to run.� Unlike private legal firms, they can’t refuse work on the ground that it might be uneconomical or unprofitable to do it.�

Throughout the day, the Attorney General has emphasised in media interviews his commitment to the statutory independence of the DPP.� I welcome those comments.� The Bar Association will scrutinize carefully all initiatives aimed at improving efficiency in the ODPP to ensure that independence is not compromised in the name of efficiency.

26 March 2008