The Australian Public Service Commissioner should play a greater role in protecting public servants who are being bullied into acting against the rules, a leading academic has argued.
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Australian National University Professor Emeritus Richard Mulgan told a parliamentary inquiry examining the "sport rorts" scandal that the saga showed the public service was finding it increasingly hard to stand up to ministers.
"The public service when administering grants needs to actively protect the procedural integrity of the guidelines and not allow itself to be bullied by overzealous advisors," Professor Mulgan said.
"My view on this has always been that ministers have perfect right to direct public servants on matter of policy but in terms of procedure then public servants have a right to insist on the rule of law really, and administrative rules.
"There should be a general culture within the public service really that if anybody, including an adviser, asks them to do something which is against well known procedures then the public servants should have the right to resist, if necessary go up the chain of the bureaucratic command to the secretary and the secretary should have a determination that they will support their public servants if they are being asked to do something that's unprocedural."
Professor Mulgan said there was a culture of "overdeference" and "oversubmissiveness" creeping into the public service.
While department secretaries were "old enough and tough enough" to stand up to ministers and their advisors, "sinew needs to be stiffened" in the ranks immediately below them.
Professor Mulgan also suggested the Australian Public Service Commissioner could step in in cases where smaller agencies were being browbeaten by ministers and their staff.
"Someone in that position should be authorised to step in. The powers are there, it's just a question of asserting them," Professor Mulgan said.
The inquiry into the administration of the $100 million sporting grant scheme previously heard Sport Australia repeatedly warned the former sport minister Bridget McKenzie's office about the risks of overruling its advice on which organisations to give money to.
