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(a)
they are serving in
(b)
a rank regarded by the BC as equivalent to an Executive Officer or above in the Hong Kong Government; and
they have been serving the BC for not less than 5 years.
It is relevant to note that a quota of the same size with the same criteria apply to the locally enlisted staff of the British Trade Commission (BTC). Both the BC and the BTC were informed of these arrangements in early September 1991.
The cases
5.
The staff of the BC referred to in the Rt. Hon. Renton's letter had all applied under the GOC without success. Some of them have no experience relevant to any of the occupations covered in the Schene.
Others were out-competed owing to their relatively young age and/or short experience.
6.
We have carefully absessed the above applicants' claims of sensitive service twice: on the basis of the information provided in their applications as well as the subsequent information furnished by Mr. Buchanan. concluded that they do not meet the eligibility criteria of
the SSC.
7.
We
We
the possibility of SSC under the special However, none of them More specifically, 7
have also considered transferring their applications to the arrangements set out in para. 4 above. fulfill the requirements for transfer. of them occupy only very
very junior posts in the BC (such as clerks, secretaries, assistants and cleaners) which, according to the BC, do not measure up to the level of an Executive Officer OF above in HKG. The remaining applicant who is in a sufficiently high rank joined the BC only in May 1990 and would not be able to meet the service requirement by the end of the first phase in early 1994.
8.
All these applications have been reviewed recently at the request of the BC. We can confirm that there is no ground for reversing our earlier decision to reject them. All these points were made clear to the BC in September and repeated in October in response to further enquiries.
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