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merited incremental certificates or recommendations to pass efficiency bars. Where possible we suggest that standard tests of efficiency in the form of written examinations, intelligence tests and interviews should be introduced to determine whether an officer should or should not pass an efficiency bar or qualify for consideration for promotion.
35. We regard it as of primary importance for the satisfactory working of the Government's disciplinary system that efficiency bars should be strictly and conscientiously applied and that Heads of Departments should refuse to give annual certificates which would entitle officers to an increment of pay where such certificates are not wholly justified. The Pensions Ordinance contains provisions which enable the Governor-in-Council to dispense at any time with the services of an officer who appears to be unable to discharge efficiently the duties of his office. Where, however, such an officer can produce certificates from the Head of his Department enabling him to secure the usual increments of salary or to pass the prescribed efficiency bars he may successfully rebut any charge of cumulative inefficiency or continued misbehaviour in office. Any laxity in the granting of annual certificates or in the enforcement of efficiency bars may therefore make it difficult ultimately to get rid of an officer whose inefficiency has persisted over a number of years but who has annually been permitted to draw the further increments which should be granted only as the result of positive good service. The Pensions Ordinance also makes provision for the grant of only a limited pension, gratuity or other allowance in the case of an officer retired for inefficiency or the total withholding of any such grant in the case of an officer who has been guilty of negligence, irregularity or misconduct. Where the services of an officer are dispensed with for inefficiency or misconduct it is important that any grant made to him by way of pension, gratuity or other allowance should either be withheld or be of such a limited ex gratia amount as not to make it worth while for an officer to conduce or to secure his own dismissal by deliberate inefficiency or misconduct with a view to obtaining a pension or a gratuity to supplement his earnings from other employment. It is recommended that the provisions relating to pensions should be reconsidered with a view to providing the necessary sanctions to secure efficiency and to enable Government without undue restriction or burden upon its finances to dispense with officers who are inefficient or guilty of misconduct.
RE-ORGANISATION AND RETRENCHMENT
36. We have proposed what we consider to be the lowest adequate terms at which the Government may expect to get competent responsible officers. But the total cost of the improvements we suggest will be high. It has been no part of our task to inquire if departments are overstaffed or if holders of posts are really competent or if departments are well organised. We have assumed in our recommendations that in these respects conditions are satisfactory. But the taxpayer has a right to clearer assurances than we can offer. It is therefore our recommendation that the Government should satisfy itself and people generally by inquiry through a committee or using the services of a special officer that the public services are not overstaffed nor the asylum of inefficient officers,