ENG-1990 — Page 59

CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION

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Continued efforts were made in 1990 to increase productivity and to improve the quality of service to the public. Further value-for-money studies and work improvement studies were carried out in various departments. These studies brought about not only im- provements in the quality of service, but also more effective deployment of staff and significant savings in resources.

The quality of service is also maintained by way of a disciplinary code which applies to all public servants. It provides sanctions against misconduct and sub-standard performance where other staff management measures fail, while safeguarding the interests and rights of individual public servants.

The government is developing its use of manpower planning techniques and practices in order to ensure that the public service possesses the right mix of officers in terms of numbers, experience, qualifications and skills to achieve its objectives and goals. Particular care and attention is paid to the selection and grooming of senior government officials.

Civil Service Training

The government attaches great importance to the training of public servants in order to increase efficiency and effectiveness and to help them meet new challenges. Induction and refresher training is provided by many departments to equip staff with the skills to carry out their duties properly. To meet common departmental needs, the Civil Service Training Centre conducts a wide range of management, language and computer courses and co- ordinates the training undertaken by public servants at local and overseas institutes. As the central training agency, it also provides advice and assistance to departments.

An important component of the training and development offered to senior public servants is the well established three-month programme run by the Senior Staff Course Centre. The centre emphasises 'learning from doing' and participants undertake almost 100 significant projects with policy implications each year. Study tours to other countries in the region provide valuable broadening experience and foster much goodwill with host governments. Interchange of experience with invited private sector participants has also proved to be a beneficial feature of the programme.

Government Records Service

The Government Records Service was created on September 1, 1989, combining the former Government Records Co-ordination Unit with the Public Records Office to provide a more effective administrative structure for the broad management of government records, including provision of records services and advice to branches and departments.

The Records Management Office and the Public Records Office in the Government Records Service are responsible for carrying out two different but related programmes to take care of the management needs of government records; a records management programme to handle records at their current and non-current stages and an archives administration programme to look after the preservation and use of permanent records.

The record is the basic unit of administration and its appropriate management will have a significant impact on the efficiency of government affairs. It is the responsibility of the Records Management Office to oversee and develop a comprehensive system concerned with everything that happens to records from their productive ‘life' as a means of accom- plishing the government agency's functions to their 'death' or destruction as non-current records when all useful purposes have been served. The system will fulfil the government's