Hong Kong’s top-ranking civil servants will be held accountable if they fail to provide adequate support in policy formulation, the city’s leader has said, despite a new investigation mechanism that primarily targets department heads. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said on Tuesday that the proposed “Heads of Department Accountability System” was intended to promote self-improvement…
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…
A new accountability system for senior civil servants aims to strengthen the fitness of government departments and raise public trust in authorities, Hong Kong’s leader has said. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu told a radio programme on Saturday that the measure would push department heads to consistently look for areas for improvement, likening the practice…
Hong Kong’s leader has delivered a comprehensive policy blueprint pushing for further economic reforms by expediting key infrastructure projects and doubling down on the city’s competitive strengths, while also improving livelihoods, notably charting more paths to home ownership. In a wide-ranging speech that left no stone unturned, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu vowed to entice…