ENG-1999 — Page 50

CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION

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The Administration

Role of the Chief Secretary for Administration

The Chief Secretary for Administration is responsible to the Chief Executive for the formulation of government policies and their implementation. As the head of the Public Service, the Chief Secretary for Administration is one of the Chief Executive's principal advisers, along with the Financial Secretary and the Secretary for Justice. The Chief Secretary for Administration exercises direction primarily as head of the Government Secretariat, the central organisation comprising the secretaries of the policy bureaux and resource bureaux and their staff. She deputises for the Chief Executive when he is not able to discharge his duties for a short period, and is the Senior Official Member of the Executive Council.

Role of Financial Secretary

The Financial Secretary, who reports directly to the Chief Executive, is responsible for the Government's fiscal, monetary and economic policies. He oversees the operations of the Finance, Financial Services, Trade and Industry, Economic Services, and Works Bureaux of the Government Secretariat, and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. He also chairs several committees, including the Exchange Fund Advisory Committee, the Economic Advisory Committee and the Banking Advisory Committee.

The Financial Secretary is responsible under the Public Finance Ordinance for laying before the Legislative Council each year the Government's estimates of revenue and expenditure. In his annual budget speech, he outlines the Government's budgetary proposals and moves the Appropriation Bill, which gives legal effect to the annual expenditure proposals contained in the budget.

The Structure of the Administration

The HKSAR Government is organised into bureaux and departments. The bureaux, each headed by a policy secretary, collectively form the Government Secretariat. In 1999, there were 15 policy bureaux of which two were resource bureaux concerned with finance and the Public Service respectively.

There are 69 departments and agencies whose heads are, with some exceptions, responsible to the bureau secretaries for the direction of their departments and the efficient implementation of approved policy. The exceptions are the Audit Commission, the independence of which is safeguarded by having the Director report directly to the Legislative Council; the Independent Commission Against Corruption and the Office of the Ombudsman, whose independence is safeguarded by having the Commissioner and the Ombudsman report directly to the Chief Executive; and the Department of Justice, which is the responsibility of the Secretary for Justice.

Office of The Ombudsman

The Ombudsman is an independent statutory authority operating in accordance with The Ombudsman Ordinance. The office was set up to give citizens means through which an independent authority can investigate and report on grievances arising from administrative decisions, acts, recommendations or omissions. The Ombudsman is directly responsible to the Chief Executive and performs important roles in redressing