TNAG-0694-FCO40-844-Inspection-of-Hong-Kong-Department-1977 — Page 10

CONFIDENTIAL/ADMINISTRATION IN CONFIDENCE

HONG KONG AND INDIAN OCEAN DEPARTMENT

REPORT BY MR M H MORGAN, MR W A DICKSON

·AND MISS H V TAGGART

APRIL 1976

PART I

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Terms of Reference

We were required to review the responsibilities, organisation and establishment of the Hong Kong and Indian Ocean department of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and to recommend any changes desirable in order to facilitate the more effective and efficient discharge of its responsibilities. We carried out the inspection between 23 and 30 April with assistance from Miss B MacGregor and Mr V Day of the Registrar's Branch.

Establishment

2.

Hong Kong department, which came to the FCO via the CRO from the Colonial Office, was last inspected in 1972 when it was responsible only for Hong Kong affairs. The establish- ment was one DS 4 Head of department, two DS 5, one DS 7E and one DS 9 desk officers. The Inspector recommended an establishment of one DS 4, a DS 5 Assistant, one DS 6, one DS 7 and one DS 9. Responsibility for the Indian Ocean territories was added later that year with the break up of Atlantic and Indian Ocean department and the department was renamed Hong Kong and Indian Ocean department. The establishment on the Hong Kong side remained substantially the same until early this year when the department traded the DS 6 and DS 9 posts for a DS 5 desk officer.

3. The authorised FCO establishment at the time of our inspection was one DS 4 Head of department, three DS 5 and one DS 9 desk officers, a third of a DS 9 Head of registry, three DS 10 and three $2/3. This differed markedly from what we found on the ground, primarily because it excluded the Seychelles Independence Unit, whose staff have now been included in the department. The present complement is:-

CONFIDENTIAL/ADMINISTRATION IN CONFIDENCE

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