TNAG-2694-FCO40-3900-Hong-Kong-Judiciary-and-judicial-appointments-1993 — Page 49

22.

very early days of cur work that effective overall management and clearly defined lines of supervision and accountability in an organisation were an almost essential concomitant· to any specific proposals for plugging loopholes for potential corruption. In this, as with a very large number of other organisations: within Government, the Judiciary was no exception, although it is appreciated that the Judiciary's circumstances put it in 2 special position requiring special remedies.'

Five subordinate issues were raised namely :-

(1) the relative merits of lawyer and layman;

whether the administrator should report to

(2)

the Chief Justice or the Registrar;

(3)

the pay point;

(4) the redistribution of functions;

(5)

the number of posts in the Registry..

23.

The need for sound management in the Judiciary was advocated

in my fourth Discussion Paper as follows :

It

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Proper management, far from encroaching on the independence of the Hong Kong Judiciary, will enhance it. Management holds an organisation and the Judiciary is an organisation together. Management can be by direction or consent,. active or passive, concentrated or diffused, good or bad but it is there. It makes sense to try and make it good if only because if bad it will not weather storms. In order to be good it requires a clear structure with clearly allocated functions."

24.

The importance of this post for the Judiciary is so great that I strongly advise against making it subordinate to anyone but the

Chief Justice. If the Administrator reports to the Registrar the grip on management is not strong enough. I have already written in the Papers that much mischief arises from misunderstanding the principle of delegation and from regarding successful delegation as the main guiding

principle of management. In the management of any organisation there are certain things which must be done by the top manager himself.

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