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QUESTIONS

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

1. MR. WALTER M. SULKE asked the following question (in English):-It appears that we have Management vacancies in the USD frequently filled by acting personnel which means, in fact, that these managers are doing two jobs. Ís this correct? And if it is not correct, why do we have difficulties in filling these vacancies? Furthermore, it appears that certain vacancies in USD strength are caused by the transfer of personnel to NTSD. This is difficult enough to tolerate in the present situation but will become much more difficult when the NTSD becomes the executive arm of the Regional Council in the same way the USD is the executive arm of this Council. What steps are being taken to prevent this robbing of Peter to pay Paul happening in future?

DR. THE HON. KIM Y. S. Cham, Chairman OF THE ADMINISTRATION SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in English):-This question concerns:--

(a) vacancies caused by doubling up by officers of two posts; and (b) vacancies caused by the transfer of staff between USD (Urban) and the

New Territories Services Department.

I would like to respond to the first part of the question first. Staff are very seldom called upon to do two jobs. Currently throughout all the management/ supervisory ranks in the urban area, only 9 officers are doubling up two posts, either vertically or laterally (3 officers are doubling up vertically and 6 officers are doubling up laterally).

When officers are asked to double up laterally they are usually only required to undertake a proportion of the duties of the second post (e.g. 60%). The remaining duties of the second part are usually absorbed by the other colleagues. Such causes of doubling up are infrequent.

The more common type of doubling up is vertical, e.g. when a section head goes on leave for a relatively short time and his deputy acts up. In such cases doubling up is quite often the better solution, to avoid disrupting the ranks down below. It does not imply that either post is unnecessary, only that with an extra effort it can make do for a short time.

Routine administrative acting appointments (i.e. not involving doubling up) are more common. Currently there are 280 officers who are acting up in the USD (Urban), excluding the 3 officers doubling up vertically. This figure represents 7% of the total establishment in the management/supervisory ranks. The reasons for acting appointments vary. For example, some posts cannot be filled substantively if they are temporary or supernumerary posts they can only be filled on a temporary acting basis. Similarly if the substantive office holder is absent on leave, training or is on trial in another rank, it is also not uncommon for promotion boards to recommend that selected officers should act in the vacancy with a view to substantive promotion after satisfactory performance.

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Another factor is that most management posts in USD are found in career grades. The pattern therefore is to recruit at the basic rank and then fill the more senior posts by promotion of suitable officers. Promotion exercises are conducted on an annual cycle closely linked with the system of annual staff reporting. Towards the end of each promotion exercise vacancies that may arise are filled by acting appointments on the recommendations of the promotion board, so that candidates identified to possess potential for advancement could be tested in the higher rank.

With regard to recruitment, the Department is not finding any particular difficulty in attracting candidates. Posts such as Foreman, Amenities Assistant III, Amenities Officer II, Assistant Manager and Student Health Inspector invariably attract hundreds of applications whenever they are advertised. Recruitment to some specialized posts such as Environmental Protection Officer may pose some problems and take more time.

I would now like to turn to the question of the transfer of staff between the USD (Urban) and NTSD. Management/supervisory grades in the USD are common to both the urban area and NTSD and are centrally managed by the Department with all important decisions being made by a Departmental Management Committee comprising representatives of the City Services, Cultural Services and New Territories Services Departments. Career develop- ment postings are an integral part of grade management and are aimed at improving individual officer's all-round abilities; raising and maintaining standards in the grade; and grooming future managers. Career postings involve transfers within the sub-departments and between them, but are usually arranged on the basis of interchanging staff. Thus overall these cross-transfers balance out and this is confirmed by the statistics for the period January to December 1984, when 139 staff were transferred to NTSD and 138 staff were posted from NTSD to the urban area. These figures relate to all management/ supervisory ranks (i.e. all staff on the Master Pay Scale). Minor (i.e. those on MOD I scale) staff are not mobile and would only be considered for transfer on request, say, for example, if an officer moved his home to the NT. If we take all the ranks together, a total of 154 staff were transferred from USD (Urban) to NTSD in 1984 whereas 152 staff were moved into USD (Urban) from NTSD.

The last return to the Administration Select Committee on 14 January shows that for the quarter October-December a total of 48 staff were transferrred to the urban area from NTSD whilst 41 were moved across to NTSD. These figures cover officers at all ranks (including the MOD I scale). Although the urban area had a net gain in the last quarter, as already indicated, the figures tend to balance out over the year as a whole.

MR. SULKE (in English):Mr. Chairman, if I could ask through you, in the last returns I saw there was a considerable number of vacant Foreman posts, which had apparently not been filled for over the year, does that not contradict the