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Following is a written reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Lai Tung-kwok, to a question by the Hon Kwok Wai-keung in the Legislative Council today (June 19):
Question:
Recently, some civil servants serving as Cooks have approached me for assistance, claiming that in recent years, the Fire Services Department (FSD) has continuously deleted the civil service posts of Cook in the Department and engaged outsourced service contractors to provide catering service instead. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the number of Cooks in FSD, their total payroll, the number of posts deleted and the reasons for the deletion, in each of the past five years, as well as a breakdown of such figures by the divisions under the Fire Commands;
(b) of the details of FSD outsourcing catering service in the past five years, including the number of employees engaged by contractors to provide such service and the annual expenditures on the outsourced service, as well as the reasons for outsourcing the service; and
(c) given that various government departments have recruited additional civil servants in recent years to cope with the increasing workload, and the catering service provided for FSD is not a kind of seasonal demand, of the justifications of FSD for implementing the policy of replacing the posts of Cook by outsourcing the service?
Reply:
President,
The Fire Services Department (FSD) is committed to providing quality fire-fighting, rescue and emergency ambulance services, etc to the public. Basing on the principle of prudent management of public resources, the Department needs to maintain a lean and efficient civil service workforce in performing the above core duties, and to provide support services appropriate to the operational needs and service nature. After thorough consideration of its operational needs and service nature, FSD considers that it is not necessary to employ civil servants to provide the catering services. Therefore, FSD has been outsourcing its catering services for frontline fire and ambulance personnel by phases since 2001. Apart from outsourcing the catering services for new fire stations and ambulance depots, the Department would also outsource the concerned catering services following the retirement or departure of serving Cooks in other units. FSD will not delete the Cook posts when they are still occupied.
My reply to the three parts of the question is as follows:
(a) Information relating to the number of civil servant Cooks serving in FSD, their salary expenditure and the number of posts deleted, etc in the past five years is at Annex 1.
(b) Basing on the reasons stated above, FSD has been gradually outsourcing the catering services. FSD will specify the number of days and hours of catering services required in the outsourcing contracts having regard to the meal arrangement requirements and the number of staff taking meals in the relevant units. As regards the number of outsourced workers, it is determined and deployed by the service providers themselves according to the service required. FSD does not have information on the number of workers employed by the service providers. The number of frontline units using outsourced catering services and the relevant expenditure of FSD in the past five years are tabulated in Annex 2.
(c) In general, Heads of Departments would determine the appropriate mode of service delivery having regard to their operational needs and service nature. After thorough consideration of its operational needs and service nature, FSD considers that it is not necessary to employ civil servants to provide the catering services. The outsourced catering services are considered satisfactory. FSD will continue to review the outsourcing arrangements of catering services from time to time to ensure that such arrangements comply with government policies and meet the needs of the Department.
Ends/Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Issued at HKT 16:02
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