ADMINISTRATION IN CONFIDENCE
COVERING CONFIDENTIAL
ACCOMMODATION (Section 16)
21. The JLG's office and residential accommodation is managed by BTC staff and is referred to in our Report on the BTC. There is, however, one aspect requiring separate mention in this Report on the JLG. It concerns the location of the office. We rent the JLG office in St John's Building for Pounds 285,000 per year. It is substantially underused. There are plans to sub-let some of the offices: this would involve alteration costs of some Pounds 6000. During our Inspection, the BTC learned that offices on the 9th floor of the Bank of America building adjacent to the BTC would fall vacant in November 1990. We understand that the Department had previously considered the possibility of leasing the entire 9th floor and other office space in the building. We recommend that the Department again examine carefully the merits and feasibility of accommodating the JLG in a separate suite the 9th floor of the Bank of America building, sub-letting entire JLG office in St John's Building for the duration of lease.
on
the
the
and
We accept that there might be political presentational problems in the move but none such as to outweigh the potential sizeable financial savings, of some Pounds 100,000 or more per annum. Co-location, but with separate offices public entrances, would also permit the fullest use of the DS resources located there. A telegram was sent to the Department setting out our views during the Inspection given the need to consider the issue of co-location quickly.
TRAINING (Section 17)
22.
each
The
The Representative, the DS4, DS5 and DS7D officers require Higher standard Mandarin properly to do their work. Language Officer for DS staff in Hong Kong
is at the BTC. Language training issues are covered in our BTC Report.
23.
We have recommended in paras 15 and 18 above that the DS10 Registrar should have accounts training and keyboard skills.
-
10
ADMINISTRATION IN CONFIDENCE
COVERING CONFIDENTIAL