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About The Oregon state employee. (Salem, Oregon.) 1944-195? | View Entire Issue (March 1, 1946)
5 An International Civil Service William F. Howell, Deputy Director of Personnel for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administra tion in the Public Personnel Review of July, 1945 describes the Personnel Program of the UNRRA. UNRRA was created in the East room of the White House on the 9 th of November, 1943 by the representatives of 44 na tions signing an agreement. The admin istration has had as one of its basic concepts the development of an inter national civil service. Here is Mr. Howell’s description of this concept: At the outset the Council recognized the importance of personnel administra tion and the concept of an international civil service in the framework of the administrative organization. The resolu tions on the subject adopted at the A t lantic City meeting have become the basic, authority and guide-post for the creation of the personnel prograin. Res olution No. 37, the first Council Pro ceedings, provides: Whereas, the Council desires to pro mote the concept of a truly internation al civil service; and, whereas, it recog nizes that the success of the Adminis tration will in large part depend upon the vision, competence, integrity, and loyalty of ' the men and women who will become its administrative officers, and comprise its technical staff; and that the vesting, by the Agreement, of full executive authority and responsi bility in the Director General, requires that he act with the greatest possible freedom in the selection of personnel and the establishment of personnel standards; it is therefore resolved, that the staff of the Administration should be of an international character, se lected upon the basis of individual com petence, character, and integrity with out discrimination on the grounds of sex, race, nationality, or creed, and re cruited upon as wide a geographic basis as is possible, compatible and efficient administration; and that salary stand ards be established at a sufficiently high level to make it possible for the Ad ministration to secure the employment of persons possessing the highest quali fications within their own particular field of endeavor . . . The overall resolutions of the Coun cil have been implemented by state ments of policy and, procedure by the Administration. Administrative' orders and working manual of personnel pro cedures and policies have been prepared. But perhaps of greater significance is the influence exerted by the civil ser vice practices of the member nations, particularly the United States and the United Kingdom. The headquarters of fice in Washington and the European Regional Office in London have en deavored to follow the best practices of personnel administration in these two countries. The officials and employees coming from other member nations have brought to the Administration valuable experiences from their respec tive home governments. Even though the organization is international in character and has set out to establish an international civil service, the im portance of traditions and precedents of the national governments in the field of personnel administration cannot be overlooked. The organization set up to adminis ter is described by Mr. Howell as fol lows: The focal point for establish’ng the personnel program of the Administra tion has been the Headquarters Office. The Bureau of Finance and Administra tion is headed by a deputy director gen eral who has responsibility for fiscal and budgetary matters, organization analysis, and administrative services, in (Continued on Page 6)
