HONG KONG 2004 - Constitution and Administration

The Civil Service employs about 4.5 per cent of Hong Kong's labour force. It provides staff for all government departments and other units of the Administration. At December 31, the total strength of the Civil Service was 158 400 (excluding about 1 500 ICAC and judicial officers).

Overall policy responsibility for the management of the Civil Service lies with the Civil Service Bureau of the Government Secretariat. It includes policies on appointments, pay and conditions of service, staff management, manpower planning, training and discipline. The bureau is also the focal point for consultation with major staff associations and its General Grades Office manages the 25 700 executive, clerical and secretarial staff. Management of the Civil Service is governed mainly by three important instruments: the Public Service (Administration) Order, the Public Service (Disciplinary) Regulation, and the Civil Service Regulations, all made with the authority of the Chief Executive.

The Public Service Commission is an independent statutory body set up under the Public Service Commission Ordinance. Its fundamental role is to advise the Chief Executive on appointments, promotions and discipline in the Civil Service. The Government is also advised on civil service pay and conditions of service by three independent bodies: the Standing Committee on Directorate Salaries and Conditions of Service (directorate officers excluding judicial officers and the disciplined services but including the Heads of the disciplined services); the Standing Committee on Disciplined Services Salaries and Conditions of Service (the disciplined services except the Heads of disciplined services); and the Standing Commission on Civil Service Salaries and Conditions of Service (all other civil servants).

In accordance with the Basic Law, Principal Officials must be Chinese citizens who are permanent residents of the HKSAR with no right of abode in any foreign country and have ordinarily resided in Hong Kong for a continuous period of not less than 15 years. It is also a Basic Law requirement that new recruits to the Civil Service on or after July 1, 1997 should normally be permanent residents of the HKSAR, save for certain exceptions, for example to fill professional and technical posts.

Subject to the above policy, appointment to the Civil Service is based on open and fair competition which aims to recruit the best person for the job. Promotion is performance-based and is not a reward for long service. As the largest employer in Hong Kong, the Government takes the lead in employing people with a disability to help them integrate into the community and ensure that they are given equal opportunity in recruitment to the Civil Service.

The Government monitors closely the turnover in the Civil Service for manpower planning purposes. Overall wastage in the Civil Service in 2003-04 increased to 4 per cent, as compared to 3.6 per cent in 2002-03. This was mainly due to the departure of participants in the second Voluntary Retirement Scheme launched in March 2003. Given the importance of continuity at the management level, the Government has a well-established staff planning mechanism to review succession planning of senior staff and to identify and groom officers with potential for advancement to senior management, to develop a pool of talent for senior positions.

The Government values regular communication and consultation with staff. There are four consultative councils at the central level: Senior Civil Service Council, Model Scale 1 Staff Consultative Council, Disciplined Services Consultative Council and Police Force Council. More than 80 consultative committees operate at the departmental level. A Civil Service Newsletter is published regularly to provide an added link with serving and retired civil servants.

Staff commitment and contributions are recognised in various forms including honours and awards, commendations and appreciation letters. Long and Meritorious Service Travel Awards, Long and Meritorious Service Awards and retirement souvenirs are given to staff having long and meritorious service. An Outstanding Customer Service Award Scheme was launched in 2004 to recognise the efforts and achievement of bureaux and departments and their staff in providing quality customer service to the public and to further promote a customer-focused culture in the Civil Service.

As a result of a widely consulted review in 1999, major reforms in the succeeding years have greatly enhanced the performance and efficiency of the Civil Service to meet the demands of a changing society. The reforms covered four main areas:

A new entry system and terms of appointment for new recruits to the Civil Service introduced in June 2000 have increased the flexibility of the appointment system in the Government. To complement, a new retirement benefits system in the form of a provident fund scheme is provided for new recruits.

The Government set a target to reduce the civil service establishment to around 160 000 by 2006-07. Two rounds of the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) were introduced in 2002 and 2003 respectively to enable staff in a total of 232 designated grades with an identified or anticipated staff surplus to retire from the service voluntarily with compensation and pension payments. Some 15 100 applicants have been approved to leave the service voluntarily to bring about long-term savings to the Government. In addition, a general recruitment freeze was imposed from April 1, 2003.

A Management-Initiated Retirement Scheme was also introduced for the retirement of directorate civil servants on permanent and pensionable terms.

The current pay policy for the Civil Service is to offer sufficient remuneration to attract, retain, and motivate staff of a suitable calibre to provide the public with an effective, efficient and high quality service. Such remuneration should be regarded as fair and reasonable by both civil servants who provide the service and the public who foot the bill. Within these parameters, broad comparability with the private sector is an important factor in setting civil service pay.

As part of ongoing efforts to modernise the management of the Civil Service and to address public comments on the existing civil service pay adjustment mechanism, the Government has embarked on an exercise to develop an improved pay adjustment mechanism for long-term adoption in the service. The objective of the exercise is to put in place an improved mechanism which reflects the civil service pay policy and upholds the principle of maintaining broad comparability between civil service pay and private sector pay.

To take the exercise forward, a steering committee and a consultative group were established to provide professional input and staff views. This resulted in the Civil Service Bureau issuing a consultation paper in November 2004 on proposals relating to the methodology of a pay level survey for the civil service and the general approach for applying the survey results. The plan is to commence the fieldwork of the pay level survey in the second quarter of 2005.

Apart from salaries, civil servants are eligible for fringe benefits depending on their terms of appointment, rank, salary point, length of service, and other eligibility rules. The Government has been taking proactive steps over the years to modernise the provision of fringe benefits to civil servants, including either ceasing or tightening up payment of many fringe benefit type of allowances for new recruits to reflect present day circumstances. In June 2004, the Civil Service Bureau consulted staff on the phase one review on fringe benefit type of allowances to ensure that their payment is in line with today's circumstances, enhance control over government expenditure in this area and improve efficiency in the administration of these allowances.

Since the establishment of the Secretariat on Civil Service Discipline to centrally process disciplinary cases, the Government has introduced further measures to shorten the time taken in processing disciplinary cases. It also delegated further authority on discipline matters to Head of Department, in the interest of empowering bureaux and departments to assume greater ownership in human resource management. The Civil Service Bureau has, in collaboration with the Independent Commission Against Corruption, embarked on a Civil Service Integrity Entrenchment Programme under which visits are made to departments as part of its efforts to further embed the culture of integrity in the civil service.

Training and development programmes support implementation of the reform initiatives. The Government acquired funding of $50 million to roll out a Three-year Training and Development Programme from 2001-02 to 2003-04. The programme focuses on three main themes, namely, training for staff affected by the Voluntary Retirement exercise, training to equip staff with the requisite skills and knowledge to implement the Civil Service Reform initiatives, and promoting a continuous learning culture in the Civil Service.

Since the introduction of the scheme, more than 3 100 seminars and courses have been offered to about 83 000 staff. Savings from the Three-year Training and Development Programme will be used in 2005 to provide training that helps staff adapt to changes in the working environment.

On April 1, 2004, the Civil Service Training and Development Institute (CSTDI) was incorporated into the Civil Service Bureau in the interest of achieving greater efficiency and economy in operation. The CSTDI now focuses on four core service areas: senior executive development, national studies programmes, consultancy services in human resource management, and the promotion of a culture of continuous learning in the civil service.

For senior executive development, a variety of leadership programmes led by world-class professionals and academics are offered to directorate and potential directorate officers. Advisory services on directorate succession planning are provided to departments. Staff exchange programmes with the private sector and the municipal governments of Mainland cities (including Shanghai and Beijing) have been launched to provide officers with wider exposure.

For national studies programmes, apart from courses at the National School of Administration and Tsinghua University, new courses at the China Foreign Affairs University and Peking University were launched in 2004. There are also local programmes on national affairs and the Basic Law for staff at different levels. During the year, the Secretary for Justice and speakers from the Mainland were invited to conduct seminars on the Basic Law and constitutional developments.

The CSTDI disseminates best practices in human resource management covering analysis of training needs, learning strategies, development of competency profiles and performance management systems through its advisory services to client departments.

To help promote a culture of continuous learning in the civil service, the e-learning portal has been strengthened on a sustained basis, in terms of the variety and quality of learning programmes and job-aids accessible to civil servants on-line. The number of registered users of the portal grew from 35 000 in 2003 to 45 000 in 2004. The CSTDI also provides support to departments to enhance the infrastructure necessary for encouraging wider use of the e-learning mode in the pursuit of continuous learning.