CO129-524-10 Audit staff salaries 15-4-1930 - 15-4-1930 — Page 8

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cost of living in Hong Kong. The incrèments

proposed by the Commission are however good,

and if it could be agreed that when an

Assistant Auditor was transferred from

another Colony to Hong Kong he would be

placed on the point on the scale which he

would have reached if he had been appointed

to Hong Kong in the first instance, the main

difficulty would be met; as in practice no

Assistant Auditor would be likely to start

in Hong Kong under £550 or £600.

If, however, I could get Mr.Dallin

transferred to some other Colony, I should

recommend a reorganisation of the Supervising

staff of the Audit Department by the substitution

of one Senior Assistant Auditor on (say) 2900- £50-£1100 and two Assistant Auditors on (say) £500-£50-£800 with the same arrangement for

basing the starting salary of transferred

Assistant Auditor on their length of service

as Assistant Auditors elsewhere in the

Colonial Audit Department.

A.1.04

.1. Starding.

Director of Colonial Audit.

ya

March, 1930.

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The Acting Director of Colonial Audit

is naturally anxious for a decision to be

reached as soon as possible about the salary of the Auditor and his staff in Hong Kong.

Mr. Phelips is now on leave prior to retirement

and the post will be vacant early in June. It is not thought desirable to leave Mr. Dallin acting as Head of the Department longer than is absolutely necessary.

Unrevised salaries of the Audit staff

and those recommended by the Commission are

as follows:-

Old.

New.

Auditor.

£950

£1200

£1100

£1400

1st and 2nd

Assistant

Auditor.

£650 - £900

£ 800

£1050

3rd Assistant Auditor.

...

£400 £600

£ 450

£ 700

It has been decided in the preceding

minutes in this file that the Auditor's salary

should be a fixed rate and not on an incremental

scale.

Mr. Harding advises that it should be

fixed at the maximum £1500 which would enable

Hong Kong to get a really good Auditor.

this, however, is thought to be too much, he would be prepared to accept as a compromise a

If

salary of £1400 (or £1450 if the Deputy

Treasurer or the Deputy Head of the Police

Department is given £1450). As regards the

Deputy Treasurer and the Deputy Inspector General

of Police, we have approved £1400 in the case

of the latter and to the Deputy Treasurer the

same

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same salary will no doubt be allotted.

This seems a suitable sum at which to fix the

Auditor's salary. It will, of course, carry

with it the high cost of living bonus in

common with the rest of the sterling salaries.

If this approved we should let the

Acting D. C.A. know at once so that he may go

ahead with his plans for selecting an

officer to succeed Mr. Phelips.

As for the rest of the Audit staff,

Mr. Harding does not question the revised salaries proposed for the 1st and 2nd Assis-

tant Auditors, and in their case an incre-

mental scale is not so objectionable.

In the

case of the 3rd Assistant Auditor, Mr. Harding's

is

view that the scale £450 to £700 means a

worsening of the position of this officer as

His

compared with that of cadet officers. minute of the 7th of March explains his reasons for recommending a higher initial salary, but it seems to me that if it is to be the general rule that the 3rd Assistant Auditor in Hong Kong shall normally be an officer transferred from another Colony, the question of the initial point of the scale is not of much practical interest. Mr. Harding admits that the increments are good and he does not himself advise a higher maximum scale. Officers transferred to this post

from elsewhere in the Colonial Service would,

usual

in accordance with the 1 custom, be

transferred at an appropriate point in the

scale.

I would

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