ENG-2006 — Page 48

20 Constitution and Administration

introduced one each in 2000 and 2003 to enable staff in a total of 232 designated grades with an identified or anticipated staff surplus to retire from the service voluntarily with compensation and pension payments. Some 15 100 applicants have been approved to leave the service voluntarily to bring about long-term savings to the Government. In addition, a general recruitment freeze was imposed on April 1, 2003.

2. Reviewing Civil Service Pay and Benefits

The policy for civil service pay is to offer sufficient remuneration to attract, retain, and motivate staff of a suitable calibre to provide the public with an effective, efficient and high quality service. In order that civil service pay can be regarded as fair and reasonable by both civil servants who provide the service and the public who foot the bill, the Government adopts the principle that civil service pay should be broadly comparable with private sector pay.

As part of ongoing efforts to modernise the management of the civil service, the Government has embarked on an exercise to develop an improved civil service pay adjustment mechanism for the long term. Carrying out pay level surveys periodically is an important part of the improved mechanism. In 2005, the Government commissioned a professional consultant to conduct a pay level survey. The survey's job inspection process was completed in September 2006 and the fieldwork, which involved collecting data using 1 April 2006 as the reference date, was completed in December.

The Government has developed, in consultation with the staff sides. representative and the advisory bodies on civil services salaries and conditions of service, a general framework for the conduct of future pay level surveys and a general framework for the application of the pay level survey results. Based on the general framework for the application of the pay level survey as endorsed by the Chief Executive in Council in April 2007, civil service pay as at 1 April 2006 is broadly comparable with that of the private sector and no adjustment is required as at that date.

Apart from salaries, civil servants are eligible for fringe benefits depending on their terms of appointment, rank, salary point, length of service, and other eligibility rules. The Government has been taking active steps over the years to modernise the provision of fringe benefits to civil servants, including ceasing or stricter control of such allowances to new recruits in keeping with present day conditions. Following a comprehensive review of fringe benefit type of civil service allowances, during which staff and advisory bodies were consulted, the Government implemented new measures to modernise the fringe benefits package. The new measures went into effect in September 2006.

3. Improving the Entry and Exit System

The New Entry System for civil service recruits has given the Government greater flexibility in making appointments while a new retirement benefits system, the Civil Service Provident Fund Scheme, provides retirement benefits for officers appointed on New Entry terms.