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LCQ1: Administration and control of overtime work undertaken by civil servants
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    Following is a question by the Hon Martin Lee and an oral reply by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Miss Denise Yue, on administration and control of overtime work undertaken by civil servants in the Legislative Council today (March 12):

Question:

    Will the Government inform this Council:

(a)  of the expenditure of each government department on overtime allowance in the past five years;

(b)  in the past five years, whether it had uncovered any cases of misuse of overtime allowance, and how it ensures that various government departments and subvented organisations make good use of the allowance; and

(c)  whether the authorities will consider establishing a mechanism for returning the balance of the annual allocation for overtime allowance to the Treasury?

Reply:

Madam President,

    The administration and control of overtime (OT) work undertaken by civil servants in government bureaux and departments (hereafter referred to as departments) are governed by the relevant Civil Service Regulations, Civil Service Bureau circulars or circular memoranda. Heads of Department (HoDs) have a responsibility to determine the staff complement required to deliver departmental services efficiently and effectively. OT work may be undertaken only when it is strictly unavoidable. It is an HoD's duty to ensure that OT work is kept to the absolute minimum compatible with operational requirements, and that it is strictly controlled and properly supervised. 

    With regard to the subvented sector, the determination of remuneration and whether to provide OT allowance to staff working in subvented bodies are essentially matters between the subvented bodies as employers and their staff as employees. As in the case of other elements in the remuneration package, it would be up to individual subvented bodies to agree with their staff whether the OT work should be compensated and if so by what means. The Government has not mandated subvented bodies to follow the civil service practice in the administration and control of OT work undertaken by their own staff. That said, Controlling Officers (COs) are accountable for the proper use of public funds under their control, including the subventions allocated to their subvented bodies. Having regard to the diversified nature of the subvented bodies, COs have the discretion to decide what financial control and monitoring system should be put in place to oversee the spending of public money by subvented bodies. While such monitoring systems may vary between subvented bodies in terms of design and substance, the focus nowadays has been moving away from control of itemised expenditure to an outcome-based approach. This is to preserve maximum operational and funding flexibility for the subvented bodies while ensuring that public funds have been properly spent by them for the intended purposes. Under the present subvention policy, most subvented bodies are allowed to accumulate in their reserve up to a specified limit any provisions which remain unspent at the end of a financial year.

    My replies to the specific questions with regard to government departments are as follows:

(a)  The expenditure of individual departments on Overtime Allowance (OTA), and Disciplined Services Overtime Allowance (DSOA) for civil servants from 2003-04 to 2007-08 are tabulated in the Annex.

(b)  As reported by departments, only a handful of cases of misuse of overtime allowance were uncovered from 2003-04 to 2007-08.

    To ensure sound administration and control of OT work undertaken by civil servants and proper use of the relevant allowances, we have promulgated the following general rules on OT management:

(i) OT work may only be undertaken when it is strictly unavoidable, i.e. the duties to be performed at the time are essential, the duties must be performed at that time and cannot be deferred, and that the duties concerned cannot be performed by another officer at the time who will not be required to perform OT;

(ii) Apart from exceptional circumstances which are unforeseen, OT must be authorised in advance by an HoD or an officer who is ineligible for OTA/DSOA and who has been nominated for this purpose by an HoD personally;

(iii) To avoid habitual OT or accumulation of large amount of uncompensated OT hours by individual officers, HoDs should set a ceiling for the OT hours which an officer may undertake in a month and the maximum amount of uncompensated OT hours accumulated by an officer at any one time. The general guidelines are that each officer should not work more than 60 hours of OT per month and the accumulated uncompensated OT hours for each officer should not exceed 180 hours;

(iv) Cases where an officer is required to undertake OT work beyond the stated ceilings should be justified on exceptional or emergency grounds, these cases are subject to approval by an officer at directorate level;

(v) OT work should normally be compensated by time off in lieu on a one-for-one basis subject to exigencies of service. Where the granting of time-off is, or is likely to be, impracticable within one month of the date on which the OT is worked, OTA and DSOA may be paid to eligible officers respectively;

(vi) HoDs should put in place suitable control measures. These include the use of standard application form for OT work recording the purpose and location of the OT work, the numbers and ranks of staff involved, the estimated number of OT hours required; proper records showing the location and OT work actually performed on each occasion, and the times at which an officer commences and ceases to work OT; and the records of spot checks by supervisors, etc.;

(vii) It is an HoD's duty to ensure that adequate procedures are in place in administering OT and authorising claims for compensation of the OT performed;

(viii) HoDs should review the departmental OT situation at least annually and take rectification measures where necessary.

    Within the above framework of OT management, departments have been working towards removing unnecessary OT work, better planning of unavoidable OT work as far as possible, granting proper recompense to officers who worked OT and ensuring that OTA/DSOA are disbursed according to established rules and regulations. 

(c)  Under the existing financial arrangement, any unspent provisions under the approved Estimates, including those reserved for OTA or DSOA, will return to the Centre at the close of the financial year.

Ends/Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Issued at HKT 11:59

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