ENG-2009 — Page 66

22 Constitution and Administration

University. Seminars on national affairs and the Basic Law are held in Hong Kong separately for civil servants at different levels.

The institute also gives advice to bureaux and departments on how to manage staff performance, develop competency profiles, enhance management capabilities and prepare for succession at the directorate level.

In addition, for promoting continuous learning among civil servants, the training resources available on the e-learning portal, Cyber Learning Centre (CLC) Plus, have been continuously enriched and updated.

5. Reinforcing Performance and Good Conduct

Staff are given commendation letters and other awards for their good work and dedication to duty. The Secretary for the Civil Service's Commendation Award Scheme commends civil servants for their consistently outstanding performance. The Civil Service 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. On the other hand, civil servants are liable to disciplinary action if they misconduct themselves in any matter. The Secretariat on Civil Service Discipline is the central body for processing disciplinary cases. It also reviews regularly its procedures for handling disciplinary matters to take present day needs into account.

The Civil Service Bureau and the Independent Commission Against Corruption run an ethical leadership programme jointly to instil a culture of probity in the civil service. Each bureau and department is required to appoint a senior directorate officer to co-ordinate effort to attain that goal.

Official Languages

Chinese and English are Hong Kong's official languages. It is Government policy to have a civil service that is proficient in written Chinese and English and conversant in Cantonese, Putonghua and spoken English. While government documents of public interest are written in both official languages, correspondence with individual members of the public is always done in the language appropriate to the recipient.

The Civil Service Bureau's Official Languages Division oversees the Government's language policy and provides bureaux and departments with a wide range of language support services.

Besides rendering translation, interpretation, drafting and editing services, the division assists civil servants to use the two languages effectively by operating telephone hotlines on language use; compiling writing aids and reference materials, such as guidebooks on official Chinese writing and glossaries of terms commonly used in government departments; and organising language-related activities like thematic talks and competitions. Furthermore, a quarterly publication on language and culture, entitled Word Power, is produced for service-wide distribution. Some of the publications and reference materials produced by the division are available on the Civil Service Bureau website, www.csb.gov.hk.