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Applicants for the second Voluntary Retirement (VR) Scheme were informed of the results of their applications today (July 24).
Out of 5,961 applications received, 574 were from ineligible applicants or had subsequently been withdrawn.
Of the 5,387 valid applications, 5,290 have been approved, including 23 directorate officers out of 29 applications. 57 applications have been rejected due to operational reasons. A further 40 applications have been held in abeyance, including 21 applications pending the outcome of disciplinary proceedings and 19 applications from the Customs & Excise Department pending further study on redeployment arrangements within the department to cater for requirements under the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA).
A spokesman for the Civil Service Bureau said: "Most of the VR takers will be released within one year, with posts deleted within 18 months. Only a few departments will need to release their staff over a longer period of about two years to ensure that the operation of the departments would not be unduly affected."
The spokesman stressed that the departure of VR takers would tie in with the departments' plans for redeployment, re-engineering of operations or contracting out programmes so as to minimize the impact on the provision and quality of service to the public. All VR takers will be released in an orderly manner.
"Upon the departure of a VR taker, the VR taker's post or a post of the same rank of the VR taker in his bureau or department will be deleted under the second VR Scheme. Deletion of posts one rank lower than the VR taker's post is allowed only under exceptional circumstances," said the spokesman.
He said: "To help staff remaining in the service adjust to changes arising from the implementation of the second VR Scheme, we have reserved $10 million under the three-year Training and Development Programme for the organisation of various programmes, ranging from those aiming to instill the right mindset amongst staff to those skill-enabling courses which enable staff to take up new duties and adapt to new working environment.
"The Government has announced that it will reduce the civil service establishment by 10 per cent to around 160,000 by 2006-07. The second VR Scheme is one of the measures, in addition to natural wastage and implementing a recruitment freeze, to facilitate the Government in reducing the civil service establishment.
"We will review the overall manpower situation later this year on the basis of the manpower plans to be submitted by Directors of Bureaux in October this year on their projected establishment up to 2006-07. These manpower plans will take into account changes arising from the second VR Scheme and natural wastage," the spokesman added.
End/Thursday, July 24, 2003
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