Mr Burns
CONFIDENTIAL
HKA 431/1
FROM: P F Ricketts, HKD
DATE: 27 January 1992
cc: Sir J Coles
PS/Lord Caithness
27/1
PROCEDURE FOR APPROVAL OF SENIOR APPOINTMENTS IN THE HONG
KONG GOVERNMENT
1.
We discussed at Lord Caithness' meeting this morning
the question of whether Hong Kong should seek approval to the appointment of Policy Secretaries in the Hong Kong Administration.
2.
The current instruction to the Governor (the Secretary
A of State's letter to him of 3 June 1991) says quite clearly
that "my approval will be needed only for appointments and promotions to the following posts... Secretaries of Policy
and Resource branches".
3. I am told that up until now this has been honoured more
in the breach than the observance. Until last June, the
Secretary of State's approval was nominally required for the appointments to a large range of HKG posts. It was apparently therefore taken for granted in all except the
most senior cases. In June we shortened the list
considerably. Hong Kong still seem to be operating on the assumption that approval is only needed for substantive promotion, not appointments to posts. But this system makes no sense, since it is the appointment rather than the subsequent promotion which governs who gets what job. If
Ministers are to have the chance to influence senior
appointments, they need to be consulted before appointmens
are made.
SUNACV/1
CONFIDENTIAL
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