ENG-2003 — Page 49

CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION

As part of ongoing efforts to modernise the management of the Civil Service and to address public comments on the existing civil service pay adjustment mechanism, the Government has embarked on an exercise to develop an improved pay adjustment mechanism for long-term adoption in the service. The objective of the exercise is to put in place an improved mechanism which reflects the civil service pay policy and upholds the principle of maintaining broad comparability between civil service pay and private sector pay. The exercise includes the conduct of a pay level survey, improvement to the methodology for the conduct of annual pay trend surveys and the development of an effective means for implementing both upward and downward pay adjustments.

In April 2003, the Civil Service Bureau established a steering committee and a consultative group to provide professional input and staff views to the exercise. In November, the Civil Service Bureau issued a progress report setting out the policy considerations as well as the timetable for taking forward the exercise. The aim is to complete the whole exercise, including the conduct of a pay level survey, in the second quarter of 2005.

3. Conduct and Discipline

In April 2000, the Government introduced measures to streamline the disciplinary procedures and set up an independent Secretariat on Civil Service Discipline to handle disciplinary cases in a prompt, impartial and equitable manner.

4. Training and Development

Training and development programmes are used extensively to support the implementation of the reform initiatives. The Government acquired funding of $50 million to introduce a Three-year Training and Development Programme from 2001-02 to 2003-04. The programme focuses on three main themes, namely, training for staff affected by the Voluntary Retirement exercise, training to equip staff with the requisite skills and knowledge to implement the Civil Service Reform initiatives and promoting a continuous learning culture in the Civil Service.

Since 2001-02, more than 2 600 seminars and courses on various subjects have been offered to about 72 000 staff. Most of them are junior staff. In support of the second VRS launched in March 2003, the Three-year Training and Development Programme will be extended to 2004-05 to provide training to staff affected by the scheme, thereby assisting them in adapting to the new working environment.

Civil Service Training and Development

The Government is committed to providing civil servants with training programmes that will equip them with the skills and knowledge necessary for providing quality service to the public. The Civil Service Training and Development Institute (CSTDI) is the Government's central training and development agency. The institute provides general training and advisory services to bureaux and departments, and it also promotes a culture of continuous learning in the Civil Service.

To encourage departments and grades to think and plan ahead so that their corporate goals can be more effectively supported by training and development activities, the institute has for some years been promoting the formulation of departmental training and development plans. By 2003, all departments and grades had drawn up their own detailed plans. In the coming years, the institute will continue

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