NORTHERN secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, has announced what she described as a radical shake-up in procedures on senior Civil Service appointments.
The announcement coincided with mounting speculation over who would take over as head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service in September, the date set by the man who currently holds the job, Sir David Fell, for his departure.
Dr Mowlam said senior Civil Service appointments should not be "cloaked in secrecy" and that in future procedures for filling posts would be more "transparent". People from outside the Civil Service will also be considered "in appropriate cases".
A special committee is to be established to decide how senior posts should be filled. Members will be drawn from within the Civil Service and from outside. A Professor of Public Policy at the University of Ulster, Dr Colin Knox, said this practice was in line with the general trend of opening up the public service and making appointment procedures more transparent.
Because of what is referred to as the "democratic deficit" in Northern Ireland, senior civil servants have more power than their counterparts in Britain. The democratic deficit in this context refers to the lack of a local parliament or assembly.
Prof Knox said Dr Mowlam's proposals would "help to redress some of the imbalance", but the likelihood was that the vast majority of people appointed would still come from within the Civil Service.
However, as the Civil Service Senior Appointments Committee will not be up and running in time to decide on a successor to Sir David Fell, on this occasion Dr Mowlam has decided the job will be filled from within the Civil Service.
She emphasised that she would, for the first time, introduce an "independent element into the selection process" by taking advice from Sir Michael Belt, the first Civil Service Commissioner. The views of Sir David and those of the most senior civil servants in the Northern Ireland Office itself will also be taken into account, as has been the case in the past.
Dr Mowlam's statement appeared to confirm that there would be no major departure from the established practice of filling the position from the ranks of the six people immediately below Sir David in the Civil Service hierarchy, who are the permanent secretaries who manage the six departments.
The difference is that on this occasion one of the three front-runners for the job is a Catholic, and the race to find a successor for Sir David has attracted more media attention than ever before. This is primarily due to an outburst on the subject of civil servants by the former Economy and Agriculture Minister, Baroness Denton, on the BBC television's Hearts and Minds programme on June 5th.
She criticised senior civil servants, whom she claimed had tried to keep her from the decision-making process, and went further in singling out for attack Mr Gerry Loughran, the permanent secretary of the Department of Economic Development, and one of the front-runners for the top job.
Mr Loughran is a Catholic from the Antrim Road area of north Belfast. He has been in the Civil Service for close to 30 years and has been DED permanent secretary since 1991.
He is regarded as an effective manager with a hands-on style. An associate described him as outspoken. Friends praise him for staying close to the community he came from, while other upwardly mobile Catholics moved to more affluent areas.
Mr Loughran is not the only Catholic among the six permanent secretaries. Mr Pat Carvill at the Department of Education is also a Catholic, but he is seen as an outsider in the contest, as are Mr Peter Small at Agriculture and Mr Clive Gowdy at Health and Social Services.
The other front-runners with Mr Loughran are Mr Ronnie Spence of the Department of the Environment and Mr John Semple of the Department of Finance and Personnel. Both are formidable candidates.
Mr Semple has been in the post of permanent secretary since 1988, and thus, in terms of seniority, he and Mr Loughran have the edge over Mr Spence, who has held the top job at the DOE since 1994.
All three have equally long and varied Civil Service careers, gaining experience in a number of departments. Mr Semple has the lowest public profile, and is the more reserved of the three, but is said to be "very able and highly rated".
As the man in charge of the purse strings, he holds a central position. Observers say he would be regarded as a "safe pair of hands".
Mr Spence is described as "very personable", "very bright", and "dynamic" by people who have worked with him. He should get some credit for handling the difficult task of breaking up the Department of the Environment into 11 different agencies in an attempt to make it more efficient under the former Tory government.
Meanwhile, Mr Loughran has valuable experience on the economic side, having worked closely with the Industrial Development Board in attracting investment and developing enterprise and small business through the DED's agencies. He is also responsible for tourism and fair employment.