Transcript of remarks by SCS
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     Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Paul Tang, after attending a radio programme this morning (April 5):

Reporter: What kind of measures would you put in place to avoid favouritism?

Secretary for the Civil Service: I think there are two things. First of all, I think we will remind all the Heads of Departments or Heads of Grades that they should set up an open, transparent system, a fair system to select suitable colleagues and they should ensure that is done otherwise they cannot manage the departments. They have to convince their colleagues they are being fair in doing that. At the same time, we will be issuing clear guidelines to the departments so they know what they should do or what they should not do. The third thing is that if necessary, of course, some of the applications may have to be endorsed by us. This is something that is already done at the moment. In the future, we will actually review that as well.

Reporter: Do you expect the policy to drastically increase government expenses if the extension is approved?

Secretary for the Civil Service: I think if all colleagues in the future work five more years, I think there will be financial implications for the Government because at the moment the Government's provident fund works on the basis that the longer you work, the government contribution will be higher. So if all colleagues work further five years, the government contribution will increase. This is something that we have to look into in details. We will be engaging an actuarial consultant to advise us on that.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Saturday, April 5, 2014
Issued at HKT 10:45

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