are efficiently serviced and that Government departments are properly and rationally houbed. By next year all branches of the Government Secretariat,, with only two exceptions, will be housed in the Central Government Building.
140.
(b) The Public Service
I believe the Hong Kong Civil Service to be assiduous
and well motivated, But
of the concern among Honourable Members that it has expanded too rapidly. The total establishment has grown from 98,000 posts in 1972 to nearly
170,000 poate in April this Year. Since these figures
encompas8
the Department, the Urban Services Department, the various works Ĉepartments and the nodical and nursing services. thie expansion of the civil pervice is hardly ourprising in view of the growth in volume and coộpe of the Government's activities
in these areas.
staff of the. Police Force, the Housing
141:
are
10
As the Government's servicoa to the community improved, some growth in the public service will still be required. But the rate of growth must now be slowed down: and, as an overall guideline, a ceiling of no more than 4% to 50 has been set on the growth of the establishment of the public service for the current financial year, as against the upper limit of 108 allowed for in the printed estimates,
help achieve this, tighter controls have been introduced on the
creation of new posts. The Government also intends to place a ronewed emphasis on the value-for-money criterion; to move away from the habit of automatically refilling posts whenever
they bacone vacant through retirement or other reasons; and to keep under critical review the size and composition of the public service as a whole.
45
/142. Further
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