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THE PUBLIC SERVICE
141.
Your Government has continued to put a great deal of effort
into building an effective, committed and well trained Public Service,
and to improving conditions and staff relations in it. In this a key
part has been played by tho.new and independent Commission on Civil
Service Salaries and Conditions of Service under the successive and···
very able Chairmanships of Sir Y.K. Kan and Sir S.Y. Chung. Its work
is both hard and painstaking and it is steadily rationalising the
structure and salary levels of the Service. Amongst the new measures
introduced I should like to mention the proposed establishment of a
central consultative council for junior civil servants, the setting-up of more departmental staff consultative councils and the creation
of "new staff relations and management units in the larger departments.
142. Last year, I mentioned that proposals for a home purchase
scheme for public servants as an alternative option to rent allowances,
would shortly be put to the Executive Council. Details of the Scheme
have now been announced and it will be implemented before the end of
It is a new departure and we must see how it works out in
But I am convinced
the year.
practice under present financial circumstances.
that the scheme is right in principle.
143.
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In March, the Civil Servants Finance Advisory Office was established to deal with the long-standing problem of indo btedness in
the public service. In the first six months of its operation, 3,019 "applications were received and over $38.5 million worth of loans were
recommended by the Office to the participating banks for financing.
The object of this scheme is to free civil servants from the clutches
of loan sharks with obvious benefit for themselves their families and
the public service.
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