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For everyone's information
Govt publications are prepared by govt departments and the
information therein is written or compiled by govt employees. When a publication
is ready to go to print, the foreword is usually written (or checked by) by the
public servant in charge of the publication project. It then goes to the head of
dept for vetting and, if okayed, it goes to the minister's office, where it is
checked by his staff. Whether the minister would bother to read something like a
foreword that is going out over his signature is a moot point - he should be
able to trust his departmental staff to get it right - else they are not worth
their salt. After all, they should know more about the subject since they wrote
it!
Once the foreword is approved, the attachment of the
minister's signature is via a signature block, so the signature does not
mean the minister has sighted it. Frankly i don't see why they should have
to read such things when there are so many discussion papers, updates and
briefing notes that they have to get through each day. So
don't blame the polly for any mistakes, blame his dept.
Sounds like I'm
pro-politicians - haha what a joke. But surely everyone has watched Yes
Minister.
Enough said
Judy
An ex-commonwealth public servant who spent some time in a
publishing branch
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