HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL-23rd May 1973
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Before the amendments to the law were made in 1972 to facilitate the "Keep Hong Kong Clean" Campaign, serious consideration was given to legislating for a mandatory minimum fine, but it was decided not to do so. Nor is it Government's intention at present to reopen this question.
Statements
McKinsey final report
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY (SIR HUGH NORMAN-WALKER):-Sir, I laid on the table this afternoon the round-up report of the Management Consultants who have, for the past year, been examining the manage- ment machinery of the Government, the way in which policies are formulated and decisions taken, our methods of putting into effect policies, and how we monitor and assess our performance in executing those policies.
When I last referred in this Council to the Consultants' work, on the 15th of November, I informed honourable Members that, up to that time, the Consultants had concentrated on the processes and procedures of Government. They improved a number of those existing-and here I might instance the standardization of requests for resources of staff and equipment, and procedures relating to the recruitment and develop- ment of our manpower resources-as well as evolving entirely new ones, based on the conception of management by objectives and output, rather than by the input of resources. The broad aim of this approach is to improve the quality of policy formulation, accelerate its fufilment and enhance the cost-effectiveness of the Government's activities.
The McKinsey team, in addition, suggested that a number of changes were required in the structure of the Government, and that some longer-term changes deserve consideration.
The overall objective was to diagnose the problems, to determine how Government's current management methods affected performance, and to see what could be done to change and improve them. Above all, the Consultants were seeking the most effective way of ensuring that our scant resources of particularly experienced manpower and skills were deployed to the best advantage.
Since December last year, in the second phase of their work, the Consultants have assisted in putting into effect a number of their recom- mendations, and have worked with Government staff in trying out the new approaches in some of our most important programme areas, for instance educational, medical and health, police, urban services and public works. These area trials have been, in the main, successful, and we will be spreading the approach more widely in the coming months.
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