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for directly supervising subordinates to the responsibility for ensuring that systems for supervision, control, communications, review and planning within an office, section, division, departeent, or Programme Area are properly instituted and functioning according to their intended purposes.
1.11
1.12
The Basic Practical Problem
In the future a basic problem in the practice of calling an officer to account will be how the practice actually starts. Looking back at the cases of syndicated corruption which came before the courts it can be surmised that, in the situations where corruption extended to senior officers, the process of calling to account could only effectively have started at the first level of management which was not tainted. This was because officers who were corrupt could have gone through the motions of accounting for malpractices or insufficient action by producing for their senior officers statistics, reports and details of activities at the ground level which not only conveyed an image of efficiency but also contained a host of mitigating factors. If successive levels of management accepted these explanations, either because they were themselves corrupt or because they were inert, the problems would have had to assume enormous proportions before they were appreciated by the first level of management prepared, and able, to take effective action. In relation to some of the cases brought before the courts this level of management would have had to be very high indeed.
The problem of all levels of management is clearly one of obtaining accurate management control information. Information coming up through a hierarchical chain could, however, be distorted by either corrupt or ineffective officers, and in that event, it is essential that managers and supervisors at successive levels should have ways and means of obtaining accurate information by independent assessment. In the future, therefore, a heavy responsibility will rest on a Head of Department and his directorate to develop systems of information which show them and successive levels of supervisors below what is actually happening in an area of activity. It is recognised that most senior officers in Government bear a heavy workload in the formulation of policies and in securing acceptance of their policies and plans. But equally important is that the appreciation of senior officers of the situation on the ground is based on accurate information. This, it is suggested, can only be cbtained by proper executive direction of staff and close analysis of operational performance and achievement. A fine balance would have to be struck between policy formulation and staff control.
1.13
How the Study was Conducted
The Hong Kong Government is a vast organisation carrying out a huge range of widely differing functions. Accordingly, it was thought that the only practical way to undertake this study was to hold discussions with a representative cross-section of officers involved in functions falling into broadly recognisable areas such as
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Policy formulation, implementation and review.
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Functional/geographical administration and operations.
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