The cases we looked at in greatest detail last year involved members of the exempt staff, or members of the ministers' staff, who had positions created for them in departments that we described as soft landings so they could go back into the departments around the priority system.
When we did those investigations we did not see ministers directly involved. The exempt staffers act on behalf of the ministers because that's their role. All the appointment authorities are in the hands of the deputies. So it is up to the deputy ministers how to delegate--which ones the deputy ministers keep for themselves and which ones they don't.
From my experience, how deputy ministers and ministers' staffers and offices relate is quite individual. In some places it is only through the deputies' offices, and in other places it's another part of the organization. Those are fairly unique circumstances. So for me to generalize would be inappropriate, because we really would have to look at the individual cases.