ENG-2008 — Page 61

Constitution and Administration | 21

4. Providing Diversified Training

The Civil Service Training and Development Institute, under the Civil Service Bureau, formulates training policies and gives support to bureaux/departments in training and development matters. The institute focuses on four core service areas: senior executive development, national studies programmes, human resource management consultancy service and promotion of a continuous learning culture in the civil service.

For senior executive development, a variety of leadership programmes led by world-class professionals and academics are offered to directorate and potential directorate officers. Advisory services for human resources development and directorate succession planning are provided to departments. Attachment and exchange programmes with the private sector and the Mainland's municipal and provincial governments, including Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou and Guangdong, have been arranged for senior civil servants to gain wider exposure.

National studies programmes include courses at Mainland institutes such as the National School of Administration, Foreign Affairs University, Tsinghua University, Peking University and Sun Yat-sen University. There are also local seminars on national affairs and the Basic Law for staff at different levels. In addition to local academics, officials and scholars from the Mainland have spoken at such seminars. Through the provision of advisory services to departments, the institute disseminates best practices in human resources development covering subjects including training needs analysis, learning strategies, development of competency profiles and performance management systems.

To promote a continuous learning culture among civil servants, the training resources available on the e-learning portal, Cyber Learning Centre (CLC) Plus, have been continuously enriched and updated. The number of registered users of the CLC Plus reached about 80 000 in 2008.

5. Reinforcing Performance and Good Conduct

Staff are given awards, commendation letters and other commendations for their commitment and contributions to the work they do. The Secretary for the Civil Service's Commendation Award Scheme commends civil servants for their consistently outstanding performance. The Outstanding Service Award Scheme. recognises the efforts and achievements of bureaux and departments in their pursuit of service excellence and is an integral part of the government effort to provide a citizen-centric service to the public. Since the establishment of the Secretariat on Civil Service Discipline to centrally process disciplinary cases, the Government has introduced further measures to expedite case processing. It has also given heads of departments greater authority to deal with disciplinary matters.

The Civil Service Bureau and the Independent Commission Against Corruption jointly run an ethical leadership programme to entrench a culture of probity in the civil service. Under the programme, every bureau and department has a senior directorate officer, appointed as an ethics officer, to co-ordinate all activities related to promoting integrity management in his bureau or department. The officer is also.