The ACT Government has hired former Commonwealth departmental secretary Allan Hawke to evaluate the ‘‘structure and capacity’’ of ‘‘every single aspect’’ of the ACT public sector.

Announcing the move yesterday, Chief Minister Jon Stanhope said he would have no hesitation in merging or restructuring agencies if Dr Hawke recommended it.

The announcement comes on the heels of another sweeping inquiry, announced by Treasurer Katy Gallagher in July, of the territory’s revenue and expenditure.

Now the Community and Public Sector Union, the main union for the territory’s 18,000 public servants, says that the service, already groaning under the weight of efficiency dividends and with a razor gang lurking, is worried the Hawke review will be a platform to launch more cuts.

But Mr Stanhope said yesterday the new study was quite distinct from the functional review undertaken by then-ActewAGL managing director Michael Costello in 2006.

‘‘This review is a very distinct counterpoint to the structural review we had three or four years ago, which really was about efficiencies and if the public service was operating as efficiently as it might,’’ the Chief Minister said. ‘‘This is about structure and capacity.’’

The 2006 functional review, which was never made public, informed the Government’s decision to close 24 schools across Canberra and make substantial cuts to the public sector in the 2006-07 ‘‘horror’’ budget.

Mr Stanhope said the Hawke review would look at whether departments and agencies were structured correctly to give the best advice and to achieve the policy outcomes that the Government desired.

‘‘It does impose some real issues for us as we seek to structure departments. From time to time I am concerned about whether or not the structure is right; it’s appropriate; whether it’s time to renew those structures,’’ Mr Stanhope said.

For more on this story, see the print edition of today's Canberra Times