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Following is a question by the Hon Leung Fu Wah and an written reply by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Joseph W P Wong, in the Legislative Council today (April 30):

Question:

Will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the title of each post remunerated at D4 or above of the Directorate Pay Scale, or equivalent, in policy bureaux and departments at present and, for each of these posts, the names of the present and last two officers in the post, their ages and seniority when they took up the post, their lengths of service in the post and the reasons for the out-going officers' leaving the post;

(b) of the criteria adopted in deciding on the promotion of directorate grade officers; whether the estimated period of stay in the post after an officer is promoted and the effects on the operation of the relevant departments when the officer leaves the post in future are included as part of the criteria; if not, whether it will consider setting these factors as the criteria; and

(c) whether it has assessed the effects of the directorate grade officers' length of service on the continued development, operation and policy implementation of the departments they serve, if so, of the results of assessment; if not, the reasons for that?

Reply:

Madam President,

My replies to the questions are as follows:

The list of posts remunerated at D4 or above, or equivalent, in bureaux and departments and the names of the present and the last two officers in the post are at Annex. The other details regarding the age of the officers, their years of service in the Government when they took up the post, their length of service in the post and the reasons for leaving the post are personal data of the officers concerned. Since we are not able to seek the prior consent of all these officers for publication of their personal data, we are not in a position to provide such data attributable to individual officers.

For members' general information, apart from certain officers who were appointed from outside the Government on agreement terms to take up the post, the average years of service of the officers when they took up relevant posts is 23 years. Their length of service in the post ranges from two weeks (for the incumbent post-holder who recently took up the post) to 13 years. Reasons for leaving the posts include posting and departure from the civil service e.g. retirement and expiry of agreement.

The guiding principle of a promotion exercise is to select the most suitable and meritorious candidate from among eligible civil servants to fill vacancy at a higher rank and to undertake the duties and to discharge the responsibilities of that higher rank.

Normally, a promotion board comprising senior officers of the relevant bureaux/departments/grades will be set up to consider the suitability of eligible candidates for promotion. The promotion board will assess the suitability of a candidate for promotion based on his character, ability, potential, performance as well as qualifications and experience prescribed for the promotion rank. In general, officers who have less than twelve months of active service after the effective date of the promotion will not be considered for promotion. These criteria are clearly spelt out in the Civil Service Regulations and are applicable to both directorate and non-directorate officers. In addition, the Administration has a well-established directorate succession planning mechanism to ensure smooth succession to senior posts.

Current policies are drawn up having regard to the needs and interests of the society and other relevant criteria. Once the policies are set, the department concerned will proceed with the implementation regardless of the changes in holders of senior posts in the department. Review of existing policies or making of new policies follows established procedures and decisions are taken at appropriate levels. Once a decision is taken, it is the responsibility of the civil servants concerned to carry out any new policies or measures faithfully and diligently. It applies to all civil servants, whether they hold departmental management positions or work at the frontline.

Directorate succession planning mechanism is in place to ensure smooth succession to the senior management of a department. The Secretary for the Civil Service reviews the directorate succession plan with Heads of Departments and the relevant Permanent Secretaries every year. The directorate succession planning mechanism ensures that there will be a ready pool of suitable directorate officers to lead the department in the short, medium and long terms.

End/Wednesday, April 30, 2003

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