TNAG-0592-FCO40-725-Inspection-of-Hong-Kong-and-Indian-Ocean-Department-1976 — Page 95

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RESTRICTED/ADMIN IN CONFIDENCE

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will certainly be reduced if the Gibraltar section is transferred to SED (who would not need an extra secretary) There may on the other hand be some increase of workload if, as we are recommending, the General section plays a greater policy role in Dependent Territory affairs. We recommend that one $2/3 post should be cut and that the establishment should become one S2 (PA) and two $2/3.

Office Machinery

55. The departmental Machinery Officer is Mr R L Embleton who has done his best to maintain adequate records in discouraging circumstances. Even the officer responsible for the department's administration did not know who was departmental machinery officer. A check of machinery against the 1975 Office Machinery Record showed that:-

(a) the department had reported in 1973 and again in

1974 and 1975 that two typewriters including an Olivetti portable were missing. But the reports had not been followed up and the two typewriters had continued to appear on the record.

(b) the secretarial staff had asked for and obtained two new electric typewriters from the Office Services section of Accommodation & Services department without informing the departmental Machinery Officer. When the new machines arrived two old machines were returned to store, again without the knowledge of the departmental Machinery Officer.

One,

(c) there are in the department two old typewriters

which do not appear on the machinery record. an unnumbered Olivetti 82 in Registry, has already been reported to A & SD; the second was brought by the Adviser on Colonial Affairs from his former post in Research department;

(a) the Registry control, and share with NAD registry,

a Rank Xerox 660 photocopier of which there is no record in either department.

We recommend that follow-up action should be taken on Mr Embleton's minute of 29 May 1975 covering last year's Office Machinery Record, and that the record itself be brought up to date, to include inter alia the Rank Xerox 660 photocopier in the Registry.

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