31/03/92
09:54
OVERSEAS DEV ADM
NO. 005
a
002
Reference
From: R J PLUMB
(Ext 3514)
Date: 30 March 1992
Mr M V Stone
Hong Kong Dept/FCO
HMOCS: CONTRACT OFFICERS
141
1. Thank you for your letter of 19 March addressed to Dave Fish.
2.
from
have views on the As you suggest, Paul Fifoot may well
we have for saying that our HMOCS question of how much scope
of the date
the will be applicable only arrangements officer's enrolment in HMOCS. Given his experience of HMOCS matters and the particular circumstances of Hong Kong, he would be much better
than placed
the Scottish office to authoritative opinion.
give
an
3. It would require some detailed research to try to establish fully what the practice was in other territories for officers switching from contract to permanent and pensionable terms. Generally speaking, we are confident that recruitment on permanent and pensionable terms would have ceased a number of years before Independence, and it is most unlikely that contract officers would have been able to transfer to the permanent establishment after this juncture. The OSAS arrangements, introduced in 1960, were designed to enable overseas territories to engage the services of expatriate officers on contract terms, thus avoiding the large salary
pension costs normally
in incurred
employing expatriates on the permanent establishment.
and
4. We are also fairly certain that if there were any contract officers who transferred to the permanent and pensionable staff, they would have been able to count for compensation purposes, any service that
that they had "bought back" Previous Compensation Schemes do not distinguish between service that was bought back and normal pensionable service.
our
an
5. Following on from the logic of the arrangements described in paragraph 4,
pensions takeover schemes (which give effective guarantee of paying benefits at a fixed rate) do not distinguish between service bought back and standard pensionable service. Similarly our pension supplements take all pensionable service into account.
6.
I hope this provides the answers you are looking for!
R J PLUMB
Overseas Pensions Department
30 March 1992