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Following is a question by the Hon Li Fung-ying and a written reply by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Miss Denise Yue, on acting appointments in the Legislative Council today (May 16):
Question:
It is learnt that long-term acting appointment is quite common among government employees, and many officers have acted for an aggregate of two years. However, in order to avoid convening review boards and seeking the advice of the Public Service Commission on the long-term acting appointments, the departments concerned have arranged for such officers to step down for a short period every six months. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the number of officers who have acted for an aggregate of more than two years in the past three years;
(2) of the reasons why a number of posts requires officers of a lower rank to act up over a long period of time;
(3) as some trade unions have relayed to me that long-term acting appointments have seriously affected the officers' daily life and their opportunities for further studies, and have thereby dealt a serious blow to their morale, of the solutions offered by the relevant authority; and
(4) of the reasons for the departments concerned not convening promotion boards for such acting appointments to identify the most suitable candidates for promotion?
Reply:
Madam President,
According to the arrangements promulgated by the Civil Service Bureau (CSB), the management would endeavour to fill posts with long-term operational need on a substantive basis. Where necessary, a promotion board would be convened for the selection of suitable candidates for substantive promotion to fill such posts. The standing arrangement is acting appointments should not be made automatically. Only when there are genuine operational and management needs would the management fill posts by acting appointments.
Against the above background, my reply to the various parts of the question is as follows:
(1) For the past three years, the number of officers who had acted continuously for more than 24 months is as follows:
Financial Year Number of Acting Officers
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2004-05 957
2005-06 735
2006-07 728
(2) Under the existing policy, an acting appointment to fill a vacant post should only be made when there is an operational need and when the promotion board has not been able to identify a suitable officer ready for promotion. Furthermore, some posts are for time-limited duration (e.g. posts created for time-limited projects) and are not counted as promotable posts. Hence these posts can only be filled by acting appointments, the duration of which would depend on the duration of the time-limited posts. In addition, an acting appointment can be made for the purpose of testing an officer's ability to carry out duties at a higher rank (e.g. such arrangement is quite common in the Administrative Officer grade). Some acting officers may need to be tested for a longer period than others. Regardless of the reasons for an acting appointment, if it lasts for six months or more, the management would select the acting officer through a selection board and review the acting arrangement regularly to determine if it should continue. For posts under the purview of the Public Service Commission(note 1), the management must also seek the advice of the Commission on the selection and review the arrangements to ensure fairness and impartiality in the process.
(3) When considering or reviewing the suitability of officers for acting appointments, the management will take account of the abilities and performance of the officers concerned. We encourage the management to maintain effective communication with staff; and individual staff can always reflect his/her views on acting appointments to the management so that appropriate arrangements can be worked out in the light of the actual circumstances. The management also endeavours to ensure that the lifestyle and the opportunities for further studies of the acting officers would not be unduly affected.
(4) For posts with long-term operational need, the management would endeavour to fill them on a substantive basis, e.g. through convening promotion boards regularly to identify the most suitable officers for promotion. When a promotion board considers there is no suitable officer(s) ready for promotion, or when there is a need to test a particular officer's ability to take up a particular post, an acting arrangement to fill the vacancy would be made.
(Note 1: Posts remunerated on a pay scale with a maximum pay point at MPS 26 or above)
Ends/Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Issued at HKT 16:15
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