The Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor received an interview with a TV program on Sunday (10th). She talked about her accountability team as the government that "changed the most people." Especially when it was discovered that some people were not suitable for political work, "you need to change people." ".
She also mentioned the new internal government promotion arrangements in the "Policy Address". In addition to the accountable officials of the Policy Bureau, the selection of the permanent secretaries and department heads of the Policy Bureau will also be based on the "housing of the capable". The principle is based on external recruitment, especially the positions of some civil servant leaders. These positions "require special abilities."
During the talk, even though Chief Executive Carrie Lam has repeatedly expressed that she is satisfied with the performance of 180,000 civil servants, her remarks unconsciously reflect that she has doubts about some senior civil servants, and that the SAR government’s logical thinking in selecting talents in the past has become serious. Deviations have led to Hong Kong’s society becoming an insecure city.
The civil service system in Hong Kong basically continues the experience of the colonial government, and uses "years and experience" as the main factor to promote talents for government agencies and fill vacancies.
In terms of salary, when a civil servant is hired by the government, regardless of changes in the economic environment, all civil servant positions are increased by one level each year according to the salary increase point.
In terms of ranks, civil servants of some grades only need to accumulate a certain number of years to be promoted to senior civil servants. Take the administrative officer grade as an example. Basically, every incoming administrative officer must be promoted to the next level at least three times. The opportunity to become a Directorate C-level administrative officer.
The internal promotion logic of the civil service system
This kind of internal promotion arrangement based on seniority is naturally to maintain the morale and stability of civil servants, especially civil servants as the providers of various public services and the makers of public policies. A stable civil servant group is particularly important for the implementation of government policies. important.
However, this kind of internal promotion logic has always made it easy for civil servants in the government to follow the old fashioned, and even get past the mentality of getting by. Carrie Lam, who was born in AO, is only raising questions now, but it is better to be late than not.
Last month, Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor met with the media before the executive meeting and talked about the official opening of the 14th National Games, the Hong Kong delegation and the event broadcast arrangements. The screen behind it actually showed "The 14th People’s Republic of China The low-level mistake of "sports meeting".
Regarding the implementation of the government’s search for land to build houses, the following and bureaucratic style of some civil servants once caused the former Chief Executive to criticize Leung Chun-ying for not having the determination to "do it or die."
All these bureaucratic problems are due to the strong protectionism in the internal promotion arrangements of the civil service system. All high-level positions are promoted internally. In a disguised form, the mentality of "doing thirty-six, don't do thirty-six" is easy to spread. .
Nie Dequan said that most directorate civil service positions will be recruited from the civil service team, and individual positions will be open for recruitment at the same time.
(Photo by Zhu Haiqi)
Isn't the inefficiency of civil servants the responsibility of accountable officials?
The society is undoubtedly happy to see the civil service system reviewing internal promotion issues and adopting the principle of "housing for the capable".
However, in the face of some senior civil servants, they may have the mentality of "getting it off" and "according to the book", and officials who are the head of the accountability bureau are not without responsibility.
In any large organization, as a boss, you must consider the implementation of your work, especially a social policy that has many departments from advocacy, research to implementation. As the director or chief executive of a policy bureau, you can’t just blame the subordinates for "ineffectiveness." The powers and responsibilities in it were emptied.
The method of using internal and external recruitment to fill future civil servant leadership positions may not be a positive way to solve the problem, but more importantly, the accountable officials will no longer have the mentality of evading their powers and responsibilities, and only attribute the failure of the policy to the downline. "Non-cooperation" of personnel.
If this mentality continues, Hong Kong’s governance will ultimately only be a game of shirking responsibility. The disadvantage is the welfare of the general public.
What civil servants need is not "morale" but to show that Hong Kong must have good governance. Not only does it need to ensure the loyalty of civil servants, Leung Mei-fen denounces innocent civil servants that are not worth a raise?