ABSTRACT
The Minister must have the supreme power, in the interests of democratic control. Nationalized industry Board salaries tend to be lower than those in private industry with fewer fringe benefits; and the pension arrangements are less generous than in private industry. While this deters some from accepting appointments, others would say that more important is the reputation of intervention by Ministers. In making outside appointments one might suppose the Minister is in no worse a position than the Board. However, more relevant to our argument than the strengths and weaknesses of the present system of appointment, is that it is one which is dominated by management considerations. A high proportion of the senior appointments in a firm will be of people from within, whose abilities and characters – especially the difference between their public and private faces – will be known to the top management from long experience and because of personnel records.
