Proposed changes to the way senior civil servants are hired could allow ministers to get "friends and cronies" into senior positions, an influential MP has warned.
Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin, head of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC), said proposed changes that would allow ministers to choose their own appointments risk politicising the selection process.
Mr Jenkin endorsed the new Commissioner of Public Appointments, former BBC journalist Peter Riddell, but told MPs that planned changes set out in Sir Gerry Grimstone's Government-commissioned review of public appointments would mean a "significant removal" of the role's powers.
He said: "PACAC remains concerned that the changes proposed by the Grimstone review, as interpreted by the Government, alongside other changes, such as the introduction of enlarged ministerial offices whereby ministers can themselves make appointments to their private offices instead of the civil service, that this may be leading to an increasing politicisation of senior public appointments.
"These proposals are controversial. They propose a significant removal of the powers exercised by the office of Commissioner of Public Appointments, over the public appointments process."
The changes follow a review by Standard Life chairman Sir Gerry into the office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments.
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Anna Turley echoed his concerns, complaining that the Government risks accusations of "cash for jobs".
She said: "Do you share our fears that dismantling the powers of the independent commissioner of public appointments will open the door to political cronies being gifted public service jobs either as rewards for donations or to create an army of political enforcers in the public sector?
"Rather than appointments made on merits, skills or public service ethos, isn't the Government putting itself at risk of accusations of cash for jobs?"
Mr Jenkin replied: "I think it is the danger, not that these things will actually happen, but people will say that they may be seen to be happening."
Cabinet Office minister Matthew Hancock asked Mr Jenkin: "As a sturdy defender of the principle of parliamentary democracy, do you not accept that voters would expect ministers to make appointments to these vital public roles?"
Mr Jenkin replied: "The question is two-fold. Are ministers being presented with the choice of candidates that they consider to be appropriate, and if they are can we be certain the process has not been fixed in order to get their friends and cronies through the appointment process?
"So we need a balance that the public will respect and have faith in."
Mr Jenkin said the committee will publish its final view on the proposals once a code of practice for public appointments has been published.
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