TNAG-1415-FCO40-1896-Public-finance-in-Hong-Kong-1985 — Page 172

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the Unit had already been anticipated and, in a staff review of the Labour Department conducted by the Finance Branch of the Government Secretariat in 1981, it was disclosed that there were no manning scales for the Pneumoconiosis Compensation Unit and it was recommended that the future staff requirements should be reviewed by the Department after December 1981 when most of the ex-gratia cases would have been dealt with.

146.

In early 1985 I carried out my own enquiries into the staff establishment of the Pneumoconiosis Compensation Unit and noted that the previously recommended departmental review of the staff requirements had not taken place and that the establishment of the Unit had remained at eight even though the number of cases had fallen from 1,300 during the first year of the scheme to an average of 360 a year in the three-year period from January 1982 to December 1984. Accordingly, I recommended that the departmental review of the establishment should be carried out without further delay.

147.

The Commissioner for Labour accepted that a formal review of the establishment of the Pneumoconiosis Compensation Unit had been outstanding but claimed that the surplus staff resources had been re-deployed usefully to other work, such as coping with the increased workload arising from the changes made in the provisions of the Employees' Compensation Ordinance. However, the Commissioner could not produce any satisfactory documentary evidence to show that the re-deployment had actually taken place and it seems that the surplus staff in the Pneumoconiosis Compensation Unit, which had cost $1 million for the three-year period up to 31 December 1984, was being used as a hidden staff reserve.

148.

After receiving my report the Commissioner for Labour arranged in April 1985 for an internal review to be carried out on the staff establishment of the Unit and this resulted in a recommendation for the establishment to be reduced from eight to four. However, the Finance Branch of the Government Secretariat was not entirely satisfied with this recommendation and it is now intended to conduct an independent review to see whether it is possible to reduce the staff establishment of the Pneumoconiosis Compensation Unit to two.