Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s last policy address in this term proposed to “strengthen the governance team” and “request the Secretary for the Civil Service to review the current civil servants in the next few months according to the principle of “the capable ones live”. The selection and appointment mechanism for high-level positions" has also indicated to the media that it will consider publicly recruiting permanent secretaries and department heads for leadership positions.
When asked why an accountable official whose performance was questioned could remain in office or even be "promoted," she called herself "the chief executive who has changed the most."
However, although Carrie Lam did replace a number of politically appointed officials during her tenure, she also emphasized a few months ago that their departure "does not imply accountability," and that if someone retires and other reasons are also included. In fact, the number of "replacements" in the current government may not be more than in previous sessions.
The lack of a culture of responsibility among Hong Kong government officials has long been known to everyone. This is reflected in their earlier disputes surrounding the Housing Authority.
Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor first expressed a "satisfying idea" on the TV program, and cited for example that the Housing Authority could instead of the government pay cash allowances to people waiting for public housing to increase their motivation to build houses, thereby "building a more substantial spirit of accountability."
The Secretary for Transport and Housing, Chen Fan, who is also the chairman of the Housing Authority, later claimed that "the responsibility is not who should be held accountable if something goes wrong, but how to do it well." Its responsibility is only limited to matters after the receipt of the "prepared land", that is, it does not include the numerous statutory procedures for dealing with the "prepared land" before.
In addition, some members of the Housing Authority also immediately retorted that they did not slow down the housing construction process.
Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said earlier that in order to speed up housing construction, the Housing Authority may consider paying the waiting cash allowance on its behalf to establish a more real sense of accountability.
(Photo by Lu Yiming)
Public officials shirk responsibility
The results of public housing construction are not as good as expected. Everyone knows that it is impossible for the Housing Authority and the Housing Department to be solely responsible. After all, both are only responsible for planning, building and managing public housing, and there will definitely be many other government departments in the whole process. Involved, the preliminary works such as site formation and infrastructure are carried out by the Civil Engineering and Development Department, the land use change is handled by the Town Planning Board and the Planning Department, the environmental impact assessment report of the development project is approved by the Environmental Protection Department, and private property rights are expropriated. It is the responsibility of the Lands Department to grant land leases... It can be seen that the construction of public housing should be the responsibility of multiple departments involved. This time some public officials used the Housing Authority to come out and shirk their responsibilities. , It just reflects their accustomed to excuses.
In fact, behind almost all incidents that have attracted much social attention, there is probably no shirking of responsibilities by government departments or public officials.
For example, last week, a taxi driver was brutally cut to death by a passenger with a knife. The industry criticized the authorities for not having formal legislation to allow the installation of anti-robbery rubber sheets. Specifically, the Transport Department only knows that "it does not oppose in principle" related facilities. However, the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department on the other side requested removal during the vehicle inspection.
Another example is the news that the cross-sea section of the MTR Shazhong Line project needs to be opened again. The Secretary for Transportation and Housing, the Permanent Secretary for Development and the Director of Transport are all members appointed by the Chief Executive to join the MTR Corporation’s Board of Directors. The Railway Development Office of the Department and the Railway Section of the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department are also responsible for following up related projects, but none of these departments is accountable for stepping down.
The main reason why a series of social, economic, and livelihood issues in Hong Kong have not been resolved for a long time is mainly because the entire governance team is filled with the aforementioned trend of shirking responsibility from top to bottom.
If most public officials blame the problems on others who share their responsibilities under the system, or even push them to the so-called objective environment and external conditions, how can the general public expect them to fulfill their responsibilities seriously?
In particular, the accountable officials in a leading position should be the ultimate responsibility for solving social governance problems. But the senior officials of the Hong Kong government are the group of all public officials who know how to shirk their responsibilities. In their words, citizens, enterprises, foreign countries All the subordinates can make mistakes, but a thousand mistakes are the only way to make mistakes. It seems that accountability is limited to the responsibility of others.
The construction of public housing involves multiple departments, and it is suspected of shirking responsibility to use the Housing Authority alone to speak out.
(Photo by Li Zetong)
Blame for loss of prestige
Looking back at the few cases of voluntary resignation of senior officials in the early implementation of the accountability system for senior officials in Hong Kong, we can see how this system survives in name only today.
Before Leung Kam-song announced the increase in the first registration tax for automobiles, he was accused of "stealth" buying a car during his tenure as the Financial Secretary. When Ip Liu Shuyi was appointed as the Secretary of Security, the legislative work of Article 23 of the Basic Law triggered a strong response from the society. The Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food was accused of ineffective response to the SARS epidemic during his tenure.
In contrast, politically appointed officials in recent years are not without similar controversies. The revision of the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance and the social consequences caused by the new crown pneumonia epidemic are even worse. However, most of them can continue to stay in office safely.
Looking at the results of the latest "World Governance Indicators" published by the World Bank last month, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's score on "Government Effectiveness" further dropped from 1.74 points in 2019 to 1.66 points in 2020, a record of 2012. It is a new low in the past nine years.
Coincidentally, 2012 happened to be the last year that a senior official in Hong Kong was accountable and stepped down. He was also the Secretary for Development, Mak Chi Kwong, who resigned after being revealed by the newspapers to be suspected of using public funds to lease his own residential units. The accountability of senior officials should undoubtedly not be limited to resignation. However, its disappearance is enough to show the weakening of the underlying ideas to a certain extent, and the low governance ability and the decline of the accountability spirit are often accompanied by both.
Since the Hong Kong government is taking the lead in leading a group of high-ranking officials who refuse to hold themselves accountable, the entire bureaucracy naturally works and continues to look for scapegoats everywhere.
It is unknown whether it is lucky or unlucky. In the past, people in the Hong Kong government still had "black storms" on the streets, "oppositions" and "foreign forces" in the parliament as the targets of blame. They ceased to exist, so they began to be forced to turn to other goals. The superiors may throw the pot at the staff and subordinates, and the official staff members tried to blame the statutory institutions that did not appear to be government departments.
With this structured culture of dismissal of responsibilities, public officials’ governance prestige has fallen to a level that cannot be lowered.
Unless public officials are completely removed from shirking bad practices, it is difficult to hope that the SAR government can effectively perform its governance responsibilities.
(Xinhua News Agency)
Proper government comes from accountability
On the other hand, since President Xi Jinping took office, he has actively promoted the cadre accountability system. In 2013, the "Decision on Several Major Issues of Comprehensively Deepening Reform" first proposed "Improve and implement the accountability system for leading cadres, and improve the system of strict management of the cadre team. "The 2014 "Decision on Several Major Issues Concerning the Comprehensive Promotion of the Rule of Law" also called for "improving the accountability mechanism for error correction, and improving the accountability methods and procedures for ordering public apologies, suspension inspections, resignation, ordering resignation, and dismissal." In the past few years, they have regulated and strengthened the ruling party in accordance with the principles of "according to regulations and disciplines, seeking truth from facts", "accountability must be accounted for, and accountability must be strict", "power and responsibility are consistent, mistakes and responsibilities are equal", "collective decision, and separation of responsibilities". The accountability work of Hong Kong is in sharp contrast with the accountability of local officials.
The easiest example to compare the accountability spirit of the Mainland and Hong Kong is the accountability of the two sides for the prevention and control of the new crown pneumonia epidemic.
At the end of last month, there were several local infection cases in Harbin, Heilongjiang. Some local public officials failed to report the information, follow up close contacts or arrange patient isolation in a timely manner, which led to the spread of the epidemic. A week later, they were criticized, educated, exhorted to talk or talked. Warnings and sanctions, and similar arrangements have occurred in almost all provinces and cities across the country in the past year. On the contrary, there have been many loopholes in Hong Kong’s epidemic prevention during this period. Responsibility, which truly shows that our public officials are seriously lagging behind in the matter of accountability.
In all fairness, Carrie Lam said to establish an "accountability spirit" and Chen Fan said "to do a good job of responsibility." The words themselves are correct and correct. Unfortunately, they, as the main responsible persons, failed to achieve the unity of words and deeds, because the two When people speak out, they simply want to avoid responsibility rather than assume responsibility.
Unless the deep-rooted shirking practices of public officials are completely removed, it is really difficult to expect the SAR government to effectively perform its governance responsibilities.
A group of senior officials and civil servants in Hong Kong must fulfill their role as responsible persons. When all of them can be truly responsible, there should be no difficulty in resolving land, housing or other livelihood issues by then.
Please pay attention to the 287th "Hong Kong 01" weekly electronic report published on October 18, 2021. You can also
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