CO129-600-3 Salaries Commission- proposed Public Services Commission 1-4-1949 - 31-12-1949 — Page 51

Public Services

Commission.

50

NOTE

Extract from draft despatch to the Governor of Hong Kong.

As regards the draft Bill, I invite your consideration of the following comments:-

Clauses 2 and 4. It would seem desirable to include in the Bill provision empowering the Governor to determine the appointment of the Chairman or members at his pleasure and to appoint a temporary Chairman or member whenever necessary. I suggest therefore that these two clauses might be combined into one and recust as follows:-

"2. (1) There shall be established for the purposes of this Ordinance a Public Services Commission which shall consist of a Chairaan and two members, all of whom shall be appointed by the Governor by writing under his hand and shall hold office during his pleasure:

Provided that

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(a) the Chairman or any member may at any time resign his office by giving notice in writing to the Governor or Colonial Secretary/;

(b) the Chairman shall automatically vacate his office after he has held it for three years, but shall be eligible for re-appointment;

(c) every member shall automatically vacate his office after he has held it for two years, but shall be eligible for re-appointment.

(2) Whenever the Chairman or any member is absent from the Colony or is unable to act, the Governor may appoint another person to act temporarily as Chairman or as menber, as the case may be.

#1

Clause 3. I an aware that the Salaries Commission stated that the Public Service Commission should be freed as completely as possile from the appearance of being under Government control and that (a) has been included in this clause for that reason. Although the Chairman himself may be a serving officer it may, at some future date, be in the public interest, tout a serving officer should be appointed as a member and I assume you are sutisfied that such a situation could conveniently be act by unending the ordinance.

It is advisable to exclude from the Commission persons who are actively engaged in politics; such persons will not necessarily be excluded by the provisions of (b) and (c) of this clause and I suggest that i. selecting persons for appointment to the Commission this consideration should be borne in mind.

Clause 6(c). This clause is open to some objection in that it permits my officer to appeal to the Commission on any question concering his conditions of service. It would, I suggest, be preferable to provide for the Commission to advise on such representations from an officer or officers concerning conditions of service as are referred to it by the Governor. It would be for the Governor to decide nether particular representations should be so refcrred, depending upo.. whether any point is

ruised