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The values of the civil service in Hong Kong are to promote fairness, integrity, responsiveness and courtesy, the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mrs Anson Chan, said today (Friday).

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 10th Zonta International District 17 Conference, Mrs Chan said that the Government is seeking to filter right through its system some basic ethics.

"We stress that at all times civil servants must seek to balance the interest of the broader community, those in need, the employed, the unemployed and the business sector.

"And that our advice must always be impartial and apolitical, drawing on experience of what is practical," she said.

Mrs Chan pointed out that the scale of the challenges the civil service now faces has brought broader public sector reform right to the top of the political agenda.

The civil service is well up to the challenges ahead and is taking a balanced and pragmatic approach to meeting them head on, she stressed.

"We must have a civil service that is motivated, modern and able to meet the community's expectations," Mrs Chan said.

She noted that the civil service's aims of serving the community include fostering stability and prosperity, improving the quality of life, caring for those in need, protecting the rights and freedoms of the individual, maintaining the rule of law and encouraging people to participate in their own affairs.

"We have used these aims therefore to develop a framework of values and management principles which we have communicated widely to provide practical guidance for civil servants," Mrs Chan said.

"We defined four guiding principles to give a clear and balanced direction to management tasks across the Government and so provide the momentum for continuous improvement - Being Accountable; Living within Our Means, Developing Our Culture of Service; and Managing for Performance."

Mrs Chan noted that the Government is now much more open and accountable than it has ever been. It is held aggressively accountable to independent monitoring bodies such as the Legislative Council, District Boards and The Ombudsman, or woman as she is now.

"We make a plethora of information available including policy objectives, performance pledges, departmental estimates and annual reports; and information on Government's decisions and actions is a right under the provision of our Code on Access to Information," she explained.

On the principle of "Living within Our Means", Mrs Chan said, keeping spending in line with our GDP growth has enabled the Government to build up the reserves that are helping Hong Kong cope with current rainy days.

"Our 'Culture of Service' requires us to be every bit as passionate about customer service as the private sector - perhaps even more so because our customers often have nowhere else to go.

"Not surprisingly, we are now listening much more to our customers and there are many visible examples around town of better service environments and considerable improvements in process times and the range of services available.

"Looking forward, new technology offers opportunities for us to further improve and transform the way we deliver services, moving away from over the counter services to the use of electronic service delivery, one-stop shop, call centres and the like," Mrs Chan added.

As regards "Managing for Performance", she added, the Government has recognised that there are limits to the improvements it can achieve through these initiatives focused on internal control and external customer relationships.

"We must also change the way in which we manage performance and resources across the Government as a whole," she said.

Photo: The Chief Secretary for Administration, Mrs Anson Chan, attended the opening ceremony of the 10th Zonta International District 17 Conference at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Picture shows Mrs Chan delivering a keynote address at the ceremony.

End/Friday, November 5, 1999

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