It's a political thing, and basically it gives the government a way to appoint their buddies. But I can say that--you don't have to, and you really can't.
If you look at the public appointments commission as a policy tool in the tool kit, would you agree that it's an important first step to have a process—you don't have to comment on whether it's this one—in other words, that it's merit based, there's oversight, there are some criteria as to what the job is about, to have a group that is other than the PMO looking at appointments?