HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 18 January 1989
香港立法局
一九八九年一月十八日
17
SECRETARY FOR SECURITY: Sir, I thought I had answered this question. Civic rights must be exercised according to the law and we have a law and civic rights must be in accordance with that law.
Vacancies in the Civil Service
4. MRS. FONG asked: Sir, will the Administration inform this Council of the current establishment of the Civil Service and the number of vacant posts as at 1 January 1989, whether the existence of such vacant posts has affected the quality of service to the public and what measures are being taken to ensure that the quality of service is of an acceptable standard?
CHIEF SECRETARY: Sir, vacancies in the Civil Service arise as a result of the creation of new posts and wastage. On 1 January 1989 there were 194 612 civil service posts and 9 735, that is, 5%, vacancies. This compares with a vacancy rate of between 3 and 4% for the five years from 1983 to 1987 and between 8.5 and 9% during the five years of rapid Civil Service growth before, that is, 1978 to 1982.
The slight increase in vacancies reflects the small amount of additional growth which has followed the relaxation of the zero growth policy and higher wastage has also contributed.
Generally speaking, the existence of vacancies at the present level is not affecting the quality of service to the public to any significant extent. But, in a few areas, we are not able to introduce improvements to existing services or new services as quickly as we would wish. The grades where there are particular problems include Analyst Programmers, with a vacancy rate of 16.5%; Social Workers, with 13%; and Crown Counsel, with 13.5%. Steps are being taken to deal with situations like this, the recently introduced double-ladder promotion system for local Crown Counsel being one example.
I would like to stress, however, that, overall, the Civil Service continues to be able to fill its key positions with people of the calibre it needs. Our vacancy and turnover situation also compare very favourably with what we understand to be the position in the private sector.
I fully recognize that the resources of the Civil Service must be put to the best possible use to ensure that the services provided to the community are of a high quality so we are constantly looking at ways of improving the productivity and efficiency of individuals and departments through good manpower planning