Factoring Hong Kong’s deadly Tai Po fire into a civil service pay review has dealt a blow to staff morale and risks creating perceptions of populism, unions have warned, saying a proposed 2 per cent across-the-board rise fails to offset inflation or reflect overall performance. Human resources experts, however, said public sentiment had to be…
Where exactly does the buck stop? Senior Hong Kong civil servants are asking themselves that question after the unveiling of a new accountability system targeting department heads. They point to the deadly Tai Po fire last year as an example. An independent committee investigating the tragedy heard evidence officials gave contractors at the blaze-hit Wang…
The Hong Kong government should use its proposed accountability system prudently to investigate department heads and avoid undermining morale among civil servants, a top adviser to the city’s leader has said. But Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, convenor of the city’s top decision-making Executive Council, stressed on Sunday that the system would serve as a reminder…
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,…
Hong Kong authorities will hold three logistics department officers accountable over their roles in a bottled water procurement scandal, with the former director, set to have his Silver Bauhinia Star revoked, cleared of direct oversight. Civil service chief Ingrid Yeung Ho Poi-yan said a probe into the scandal involving the HK$166 million bottled water procurement…
Hong Kong authorities have replaced Tai Po district officer Eunice Chan Hau-man, who recently apologised for her choice of attire at the funeral of the firefighter who died in the catastrophic Wang Fuk Court fire. Two government sources told the Post on Tuesday that her removal was not triggered by the episode, but had been…
More than 20,000 Hongkongers – mostly civil servants – have signed up to cast their ballots at new designated polling stations set up to facilitate voting in the Legislative Council election, while fewer than 20 individuals from ethnic minority communities have made use of the new arrangement. Justice David Lok Kai-hong, Electoral Affairs Commission chairman,…
Residents of the only tower left untouched by the deadly blaze that destroyed seven others at Wang Fuk Court in Hong Kong’s Tai Po neighbourhood will be given 90 minutes on Wednesday and Thursday to collect their belongings. Civil servants will be on hand to help move their possessions, authorities have said. Amy Lam Man-han,…
Hong Kong’s senior civil servants will be subject to a new mechanism to hold them accountable for underperformance, with dismissal as the maximum penalty. Announcing the new “Heads of Department Accountability System” in his annual policy address, the chief executive later dismissed concerns that the move might deter senior servants. “If they think like that,…
Hong Kong’s senior civil servants will be subject to a new mechanism to hold them accountable for underperformance, with dismissal as the maximum penalty. Announcing the new “Heads of Department Accountability System” in his annual policy address, the chief executive later dismissed concerns that the move might deter senior servants. “If they think like that,…