CONFIDENTIAL
BACKGROUND NOTES
THE CIVIL SERVICE
NO. 13
On the 1st April, 1966 the establishment of the Public Service
(which includes the services of the Urban Council) totalled 70,852. The
estinated expenditure on personal emoluments (including pensions) for
the financial year 1966/67 was about £38 million, i.e. 58% of the
estinated recurrent expenditure, or 33% of the total estimated expenditure
for the year,
In 1949 the total establishment of the Public Service was
about 17,500.
2. This growth has been accompanied by a determined effort to fill as
many posts as possible with local candidates, particularly in the nore
senior grades. Over the Service as a whole, the percentage of overseas
officers is 2.8%. In the administrative and professional grades however
the percentage of posts filled by overseas officers is about 46%. In a
number of professions (e.g. law and medicine) it is difficult to attract
local candidates into government service and having attracted then to
keep then. It is necessary for political and security reasons to fill
the senior posts in the Administration and Police with expatriate officers.
Salaries Commission
3. Early in 1965 the Hong Kong Government appointed a Salaries
Connission the last review of salaries having taken place in 1959.
4. The Commission's report which issued in September, 1965, considered
that wages and salaries in the Public Service should be increased to
offset the rise in the cost of living since 1958, with a further increase
in recognition of the general rise in wages and salaries outside the
public sector. To this end it recommended, inter alia, that salaries gencrally should be increased by 16% as from 1st April, 1965 over the
/1959
CONFIDENTIAL
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