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THE REPORT OF THE COMMISSION.
PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT.
The Public Works Department is the largest of the Government Departments, includ- ing as it does thirteen sub-departments, some of which are larger than an ordinary depart- ment. It is the department with which the public in one way or another most frequently comes in contact. Also it is the one which spends more money than any other, For these reasons it is not unnatural that it should be the target for a good deal of criticism, both justifiable and unjustifiable.
2. The department consists of a Director of Public Works, the Assistant Directors of Public Works, one for Hong Kong and one for Kowloon and New Territories, and thirteen sub-departments Architectural, Drainage, Electrical, General Works, Port Development, Public Health and Buildings Ordinance Office, Roads Piers and Bridges, Waterworks (Maintenance), Waterworks (Construction), Crown Lands, Surveys, Valuations and Resumptions, and Accounts and Stores. In charge of each sub-department. is an executive engineer, except for Waterworks (Construction) where there is an Assist- ant Director of Public Works, and except also for Crown Lands, Surveys, and Accounts. and Stores, for each of which there is a Superintendent, and Valuations and Resumptions which consists (European staff) of one engineer and one overseer only.
3. The first thing that struck the Commissioners was the unwieldiness of this con- glomeration of departments all grouped under the one head. In no other Colony of any size are Waterworks, Crown Lands, or Surveys for instance, under the Director of Public Works. In many Electricity is a department by itself. The natural result of putting so much under one head of department is that he cannot possibly be expected to cope with the work; re-organization is as important as. and is the first step towards, retrenchment.
4. In the course of their investigations the Commissioners observed a tendency on the part of many of the witnesses from the Public Works Department to refrain from responding to the evident necessities of the situation in regard to retrenchment: some being merely reticent and others frankly obstructive. After making every allowance for the circumstances the Commissioners feel that a considerable amount of time might have been saved had the witnesses in question been less secretive In certain instances sugges- tions put forward by the Commissioners, which would obviously have met the difficulties referred to by the witnesses, were received with extreme diffidence.
5. As a cornmencement the Commissioners recommend the severance from the Public Works Department of the two Waterworks offices, Maintenance and Construction. One of the reasons why the water question has been so mismanaged in the past is because the head of the Water Department has been only one (albeit an important one) of twelve other sub-departmental heads competing for the time and attention of the Director of Public Works, with the result that his views have failed to filter through to the Chief Executive.
6. The Commissioners realize that their proposal to set up a new department may appear to be the reverse of retrenchment, but the money spent, in order to bring water to the Colony and to store it during the drought of 1929, sufficiently demonstrates the result of neglecting this all important question. They feel strongly that a settled programme should be prepared and definitely adhered to, so that there shall be no recurrence of the untoward happenings of that year.
7. The new Waterworks department should be organized as at present into Construc tion and Maintenance, the latter under an executive engineer responsible to the head of the Waterworks Department, the former under the direct control of the head. The Com- missioners do not recommend any reduction in the staffs of these two sub-departments. Hong Kong is behindhand with present requirements, instead of being 5 years ahead as is. considered the minimum by water authorities elsewhere There is a full ten years' pro- gramme in front of the department.
8. An indirect result of taking Waterworks out of the Public Works Department is to relieve the Public Works Department Unallocated Stores of having to carry' the large amount of Waterworks stores. By Colonial Regulations Unallocated Stores of the Public Works Department may not exceed 4 lakhs; of this 4 lakhs Waterworks takes up about 2 lakhs, which leaves a quite insufficient margin for the remaining sub-departments
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