A statutory advisory body in Hong Kong will be given new powers as early as June to investigate government department heads over “serious, widespread or systemic” problems, as part of a broader push to institutionalise accountability for top officials.
A Civil Service Bureau spokeswoman stressed that the new system targeted “implementation failures” by senior officials, but a union representative argued that major scandals often stemmed from flawed policy designs in which bureau chiefs and permanent secretaries should also be held responsible.
The proposed legislation, submitted to the Legislative Council on Tuesday, seeks to grant new investigative powers to the Public Service Commission, an independent, statutory body that advises the government on civil service appointments and promotions.
In a letter to the 170,000-strong civil service workforce, bureau chief Ingrid Yeung Ho Poi-yan said: “Department heads, who are the ‘primary responsible persons’ of their departments, must establish … appropriate authorisation, supervision and management mechanisms at different levels, to effectively supervise the department and prevent or detect and resolve problems as early as possible.”
Under the proposal, the chief executive, department secretaries or bureau directors can initiate investigations if they deem problems occurring in a department to be “widespread, repetitive, systemic”, or if there are indications that department heads are personally implicated.
The South China Morning Post has learned that about 60 department heads will be subject to the new investigation framework, while all police personnel and most permanent secretaries of bureaus are excluded.
