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…
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,…
The head of a civil service union federation has warned that tighter disciplinary action risks becoming excessive as the government seeks to revise the penalty system to handle underperforming senior civil servants this year. Leung Chau-ting, chairman of the Federation of Civil Service Unions, was responding to the Civil Service Bureau’s reply to a lawmaker’s…
More than 150 Hong Kong civil servants have been dismissed for serious misconduct or criminal convictions over the past three financial years, with the police force accounting for the largest number of cases. In a written reply to a lawmaker’s inquiry on Thursday, the Civil Service Bureau said 151 civil servants were dismissed for serious…
Hong Kong’s director of immigration will have his service extended beyond the retirement age until June next year, authorities have announced. The announcement to extend the term of Benson Kwok Joon-fung was made on Wednesday, a day before he reached the retirement age of 57. “The purpose of granting director Kwok’s service extension is to…
A senior Hong Kong police officer has denied molesting a government clerk at the force’s headquarters more than a year ago. Senior Superintendent Ian Chow Ngai-kong, 50, on Monday stood trial at Eastern Court on three counts of indecent assault over the alleged incidents at police headquarters in Wan Chai on June 19 and November…
Hong Kong’s pressing demographic challenges demand tailored, well-considered civil service policies. However, the proposal put forward in recent Legislative Council debates on population policy to raise the retirement age for all civil servants to 65 offers no viable solution to these issues. This one-size-fits-all approach overlooks the civil service’s flexible retirement frameworks and works against…
Hong Kong authorities have launched an unprecedented open recruitment exercise for director roles spearheading information services and environmental hygiene, with “strong political acumen” being a common requirement. The government posted the two job advertisements on its website on Wednesday to publicly recruit the directors for the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department and the Information Services…
The head of Hong Kong’s Tianjin liaison office has posted online about his alleged acceptance of perks, including a private ferry cabin and a five-star hotel suite upgrade, prompting calls for an investigation into a potential conflict of interest. Authorities said on Wednesday that the hotel upgrade costs did not involve public funds, adding that…
Hong Kong government employees are not allowed to apply for “authorised absences” to attend official events related to the coming Legislative Council election, the Civil Service Bureau has stressed, after a union reportedly suggested its members could do so. The bureau on Thursday also stressed that civil servant unions should only invite government employees to…