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The existing "three noes" flaws in the selection and appointment mechanism of senior civil servants

2021-10-22T10:40:50.505Z


Hong Kong society is now experiencing "from chaos to governance", and those who govern Hong Kong also need to "from chaos to governance." In the latest "Policy Address 2021", Chief Executive Carrie Lam proposed to review the selection and appointment mechanism for senior civil servants


Hong Kong society is now experiencing "from chaos to governance", and those who govern Hong Kong also need to "from chaos to governance."

In the latest "Policy Address 2021", Chief Executive Carrie Lam proposed to review the selection and appointment mechanism for high-level civil servants in order to put the most visionary and capable officials in the most suitable positions.

In fact, the civil service team’s problems such as follow-up, conservativeness, bureaucracy, lazy governance, etc. have been criticized for a long time. After the anti-amendment legislation in 2019 and the new crown virus epidemic since 2020, the shortcomings of some senior civil servants who lack responsibility for governance in Hong Kong have been even more exposed. It is exhaustive, and many analyses have attributed the root cause to the "three noes" flaws in the selection and appointment mechanism.


Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor went to the Legislative Council to read the last policy address of the current government on October 6, requesting a review of the existing selection and appointment mechanism for senior civil servants.

(Photo by Luo Junhao)

Lack of motivation to "want to work"

The Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor read out the last "policy address" in his term in the Legislative Council earlier (October 6).

She used "New Weather, New Future" as a sub-topic, meaning to take advantage of society's return to stability and to draw a blueprint for the future development of Hong Kong in terms of land, infrastructure, and regional development.

In order to achieve these social developments, the cooperation of a "loyal, professional, university, good at acting, courageous, and diligent governance team for the people" is indispensable.

To this end, Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor proposed to review the existing selection and appointment mechanism of senior civil servants based on the principle of "the one who can live", "to put the most visionary and capable officials in the most suitable position."

As a matter of fact, the civil service team has been criticized for a long time for its follow-up, conservative, bureaucratic, lazy government and other issues, and the society's calls for reform have never stopped. However, the government often dare not really make reforms because it affects the morale of civil servants.

After the anti-revision regulations in 2019 and the new crown virus epidemic since 2020, Carrie Lam, who has been a civil servant for 40 years, finally had to face up to the reality that the existing senior civil servant selection and appointment mechanism "cannot select and appoint talents."

When explaining the policy to reporters, she first reassures the civil service team to be "executive and capable", then tactfully pointed out that some of them lack the motivation to "want to serve," and she also painstakingly emphasized that the higher-level leadership is in need of change. More responsibilities can be more conducive to the administration of the SAR government.

So, what is wrong with the existing mechanism that will cause senior officials to gradually lose the motivation to "want to work"?

Based on various analyses, it can be roughly summed up as the "three noes" defects:

if political awareness is not assessed, correct responsibility ethics cannot be formed; no external competition is allowed to select the best candidates; if performance indicators are not set, salary increases can be made regardless of performance

.

When Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor explained the policy to reporters, she pointed out that some of the civil servants lacked the motivation to "want to work."

(Photo by Liao Yanxiong)

The reform mechanism refers to the "government officer"

Before discussing the "three noes" deficiencies in detail, we might as well understand the current civil service establishment and employment profile.

As of June 30, 2020, there are a total of 177,300 civil servants in Hong Kong who are responsible for the work of the three major grades, including the "general grades" covering the clerical and secretarial grades, the executive officer grades, and the administrative grades. The work is limited to certain The "departmental grades" of each department are the "common grades" that work in multiple departments and are under the jurisdiction of the heads of individual departments. Among them, the "general grades" are not only "general", and can be described as very important, such as clerical and secretarial services. Support and front-line services, the administrative officer handles resource and system management, and the administrative officer (Administrative Officer, AO) is also given the most important "management generalist" responsibilities. On average, two to three years are sent to different decision-making departments for collaborative development And earnestly implement government policies.

The number of government officials is not large, but they have absolute power and play a key role in the governance of the government. Therefore, they are regarded by the outside world as the "favorites of heaven." This is the biggest obstacle, so it is also dubbed the "AO Party."

According to statistics from the Civil Service Bureau, as of June 30 last year, the SAR government had 1,390 officials at the directorate level or at the same salary level; and as of March 31 this year (see the figure below), 748 of them were administrative officials. , Accounting for half of all directorate officials.

Among the 748 administrative officials, in addition to 168 administrative directors and 233 senior government directors, there are as many as 347 directorate administrative officials at the top of the power pyramid. They occupy important positions in all government departments, of which 19 are Serving as the "Permanent Secretary" in 13 decision-making departments and the Chief Executive's Office, respectively, is the highest rank in the civil service system.

The outside world believes that political officials shoulder heavy responsibilities and are the targets of this reform.

Screenshot from the Civil Service Bureau.

Defect 1: If political consciousness is not assessed, correct responsibility ethics cannot be formed

According to the existing mechanism, the SAR government regularly recruits a certain number of civil servants at the lowest level (basic level) every year to fill vacancies caused by retirement and resignation.

Take the "Administrative Officer" as an example. Last year, there were 45 external recruitments. As a result, 14,000 job applications were received, with an average of 311 people competing for one position.

Candidates for "Administrative Affairs Officers" must meet the basic requirements for entry into civil servants, that is, two levels of Chinese and English language proficiency and equivalent requirements, the Basic Law and the comprehensive recruitment examination aptitude test for passing results, and a duration of participation A three-hour joint recruitment exam with two questions, one in one Chinese and one English, to demonstrate their language, analysis, and problem-solving skills through controversial issues and specific questions; and then, the recruitment committee will use the job requirements, relevant skills, and skills of the candidates. Many selections were made in terms of qualifications, work experience, and personality characteristics.

However, the entire content of the assessment does not involve the national Constitution, national systems and policies, and common sense of national conditions.

"There is no civil service system in the world that does not require people with public power to understand the political system of the country and government." Lin Zhaohui, a member of the National Society for Hong Kong and Macau Studies and the Psychological Affairs of the Beijing Hong Kong and Macau Scholars Research Center, was interviewed by "Hong Kong 01", quoting mainland scholars Criticism of Hong Kong's civil service system.

He believes that the current "Basic Law" assessment content is very superficial, and there is also a lack of a comprehensive set of national conditions assessment and training, which directly causes civil servants to pay less attention to the "national concept" and fail to form correct responsibility ethics.

For example, when Carrie Lam announced the broadcast measures for the 14th National Games earlier, the big screen behind him was printed with the words "China's People's Republic". It is unavoidable to raise questions. Can you make a mistake if you are not "sensitive"?"

Lin Zhaohui, a member of the National Hong Kong and Macau Research Association and the Beijing Hong Kong and Macau Scholars Research Center, currently has a superficial assessment of the Basic Law and lacks a comprehensive set of national conditions assessment and training.

The picture shows the Civil Service Bureau holding a national security seminar at the government headquarters.

(Information Services Department)

When civil servants lack the knowledge and importance of the country, in the process of understanding and practicing the "One Country, Two Systems", they may emphasize the "Two Systems" rather than "One Country", and even adopt the "negative attitude" and "the river does not violate the well water". "Division thinking" looks at the Mainland.

For example, Carrie Lam’s "Northern Metropolis" blueprint proposed in the "Policy Address 2021" was actually advocated by many scholars before the return of Hong Kong, but in the early days of the return, he was given an overview by the then Chief Secretary for Administration, Anson Chan. The others rejected it. As a result, Hong Kong, which borders Hong Kong and Shenzhen, lags far behind Shenzhen.

To be fair, the SAR government is not completely unsuccessful in enhancing civil servants’ knowledge of the country, such as arranging civil servants to go north to study national affairs every year; however, this kind of national conditions training does not cover all civil servants, and it does not explicitly require them to internalize a kind of service to the country. The value perception of serving the people, over time, "national conditions education" has naturally become a process of "sacrificing etiquette as etiquette," which cannot make civil servants solemn at all.

However, with the implementation of the "Hong Kong National Security Law", all civil servants must recognize the basic bottom line of the country and the special zone.

In the civil service examinations, in addition to the Basic Law, if additional questions can be added to assess their understanding of national system concepts and policy thinking, it may help them to better connect with the country when performing official duties in the future.

In the absence of competition, the number of government talents that can be selected is inherently limited. Not only is it impossible to "live the capable", but it even erodes the active fighting spirit of internal officials, making them feel good about themselves and live by themselves all day long.

(Photo by Jiang Zhiqian)

Defect 2: Not open to external competition, unable to select the best candidates

Ordinary people may think that political officials are the best candidates after they have undergone many tests and careful selection.

However, the reality is not the case-although the SAR government regularly recruits the lowest-ranking administrative officers every year, for higher-level administrative officials, generally they will only be promoted from the original administrative officer system step by step, but not Recruit from outside.

In the absence of competition, the number of government talents that can be selected is inherently limited. Not only is it impossible to "live the capable", but it even erodes the active fighting spirit of internal officials, making them feel good about themselves and live by themselves all day long.

Regarding the promotion of administrative officers, the Civil Service Bureau will regularly convene promotion and selection committees-the Secretary of the Civil Service or the relevant permanent secretary (D8) will serve as the chairman, and senior administrative officers or higher-ranking officers will serve as committee members. The candidate’s character, abilities, experience and qualifications are evaluated with reference to past performance appraisal reports, and the independent opinion of the Civil Service Commission composed of retired civil servants and members of the public needs to be consulted, and the final decision will be made by the Secretary for Civil Service.

However, as Lin Chaohui observes, the existing promotion mechanism gives people a sense of seniority and "promotion". For example, the administrative officer can be promoted to the senior administrative officer after seven years, and he can be promoted to the directorate after another five to seven years. C-level administrative officer (D2).

It is worth mentioning that there is actually no explicit stipulation that senior civil servants must be promoted from within. In fact, the SAR government publicly recruited "senior administrative officers" in 2001.

At that time, the government opened 10 places with a monthly salary of more than 80,000 yuan, and enjoyed 15% of contract gratuities and other benefits. Only those with a first-level or second-level degree from a local university, seven years of work experience after graduation, and Hong Kong permanent residents who have lived in Hong Kong for seven years can apply.

The authorities hereby hired a consulting company to design an evaluation system costing 1 million yuan. In the end, 2679 people applied and 153 people participated in the first round of interviews, of which 27 were eligible to participate in the assessment center test. The last 11 people entered the interview stage, and the results were given to 5 people. Appointments were issued, but only four people accepted the offer, including Huang Zhanqiao, who was former Sha Tin District Office Officer last year and was transferred to the Correctional Services Department’s Administrative Secretary this year.

In 2001, the then Director of the Civil Service Bureau, Wang Yongping, proposed to openly recruit "senior administrative officers", but the plan never happened.

(Profile picture)

It can be said that the Hong Kong government originally intended to use this as a pilot to further open up the recruitment of directorate administrative officials to recruit talents for the government. Unexpectedly, due to the low recruitment efficiency, the outside world is generally not optimistic, and the incident has caused internal dissatisfaction. Severe blow to the morale of the civil service team-since then, the authorities have never dared to recruit higher-level administrative directors.

A closed selection mechanism cannot replenish the government talent system. Coupled with the annual increase in the retirement of directorate civil servants since 2012, it is inevitable that internal competition among civil servants will be weakened again. As long as the time is up, the promotion will be natural.

According to a document provided by the Civil Service Bureau to the Legislative Council (pictured below), in 2012/2013, about 120 directorate civil servants retired, the following year dropped to 100, and then gradually climbed to the retirement peak of nearly 160 in 2017/2018 , Which will fall back to 140 people in 2020/2021-it is foreseeable that if the government does not open up recruitment to the outside world, it will only be able to "pull the seedlings and promote" from the inside, which will be harmful and useless.

Source: Legislative Council Civil Servants and Subsidized Institutions Staff Affairs Committee "Civil Service Establishment, Actual Number of Posts, Retirement, Resignation, Age Distribution and Sexual Distribution Profile" (screenshot picture)

Defect 3: No performance indicators are set, and salary increases can be achieved regardless of performance

In theory, civil servants have two opportunities to "increased salary" every year: the first time is to increase the salary according to the salary scale of the civil servant's rank (commonly known as "jump point") until the maximum salary: the second time is based on The private market pay trend survey, adjust the overall civil servant pay.

But what is criticized is that since civil servants do not set performance indicators, they can raise their salaries as long as they are not too bad.

For "jumping points", according to Article 451 of the Civil Service Regulations: "Civil servants must have conduct (including loyalty, obedience to orders, courtesy) and work attitude (that is, dedicated work, loyalty and Only when you work hard) can you get a salary increase.” It can be seen that the original intention is to give the management a tool to monitor and evaluate the performance of employees, and the government also has a system for evaluating employee performance, that is, triple repetition. Inspection system: The evaluation of each civil servant needs to pass the non-rank evaluator (supervisor), endorser (person two levels higher than the evaluator), and reviewer (head of grade or authorized officer) Fill in separately. During the process, the supervisor and the countersigner must meet with the assessee to discuss their work performance. The assessee will be "scored" according to a six-level system, that is, "excellent" to "bad", which are excellent and good. , Often, acceptable, poor, inferior.

Lin Zhaohui, who has been studying the civil service system for a long time, pointed out that as long as civil servants do not make "major mistakes," they are generally allowed to increase their salaries.

(Profile picture)

However, Lin Zhaohui, who has been studying the civil service system for a long time, pointed out that as long as civil servants do not make "major mistakes," they are generally allowed to increase their salaries.

Assistant Professor Huang Zhanli of Macau University of Science and Technology also stated in the book "Hong Kong Civil Service System" that the current salary increase system has deviated from its original intent. "In reality, the salary increase will be automatically given regardless of the actual performance of the employees."

Regarding the remuneration mechanism for civil servants adjusted based on market data, the salary survey committee generally investigates the salary increase and decrease changes of high, middle and low-level employees in private organizations based on the salary changes of 108 companies and about 150,000 employees in the past year. Then, according to the mechanism, the total incremental salary of civil servants at all levels is deducted to obtain the net index of the salary trend of civil servants, and the salary is adjusted with reference to the index.

However, such a salary increase mechanism often interacts with the private market in a disguised form. For example, when the market environment is unstable during the year, the net salary trend index records a "negative index", and the government is worried about "pay cuts" or triggering private market chains. In response, it adopts a "salary freeze"; on the contrary, if the market is relatively stable, the government will "take the lead" in raising wages.

Looking through the information, apart from the fact that the Hong Kong economy has been hit hard by the epidemic in the past two years and the government has decided to "freeze salaries", the previous nine years of civil servants can be described as "increasing labor every year."

Hong Kong 01 Drawing

More importantly, this practice of only referring to private market data without referring to private companies linking salary increases to performance in a disguised form obliterates the "civil servants"' fighting spirit for "increasing labor."

Lin Zhaohui described, "Every time he'follows' a promotion like this, without a clear signal of competition, how can he (civil servants) know how he is doing?" Take Singapore civil servants as an example. Give them "competitive signals", such as how much manpower can be added each year, whether their work performance is within the best 5% of the group, etc., will be evaluated when considering promotion." However, civil servants in Hong Kong only need to ensure that the job is "no If you have done nothing wrong, you will be able to "increase your salary" twice a year.

Working under such a mechanism and environment, who would be willing to "throw their heads and shed blood"?

Now Carrie Lam finally asks to review the selection and appointment mechanism of senior civil servants, which can be described as the first step to "change the past."

Lin Zhaohui suggested that the SAR government can follow the example of Singapore and link the "pay increase" mechanism to the personal performance of civil servants, so that civil servants have the motivation to "want to work."

(Profile picture)

What kind of senior officials selection mechanism does Hong Kong need?

Lin Zhaohui suggested that the SAR government could follow the example of Singapore and link the "pay increase" mechanism to the personal performance of civil servants, so that civil servants have the motivation to "want to work": "For example, "jump point" three to five salary grades every year. However, only 5-10% of civil servants can get this salary increase, depending on the performance of the (civil servants).”

In addition, you can also refer to the promotion mechanism for civil servants in the Mainland to change the current one-way three-fold review system-supervisors, personnel two levels higher than the assessee, heads of grades or authorized personnel, to department colleagues, department heads, and positions. Department head or authorized personnel.

He believes that this approach can ensure that civil servants cannot only "please" their superiors. At the same time, they also need to do their daily work and be recognized by colleagues to ensure that the government can more accurately "select talents."

In addition, the government should set up a mechanism to introduce competition from the outside, and recruit political talents to "airborne" senior administrative officers or different directorate positions to "activate" the aggressive mentality of the civil service leadership.

For example, during the British Hong Kong period, the Governor of Hong Kong could apply to the Colony Department to deploy officials from other colonies to be "airborne" to the local civil service system. Work requirements."

Lin Zhaohui, a member of the National Society for Hong Kong and Macao Studies and the Beijing Hong Kong and Macao Scholars Research Center, said in an interview with "Hong Kong 01" that the current selection mechanism for senior officials should be reformed.

(Profile picture)

Unfortunately, this more flexible "airborne" mechanism has almost disappeared after 2001.

Lin suggested that in addition to recruiting senior civil servant leaders, the government can also arrange for political assistants to "jump in queues" in the department. "For example, the government can create a post in the Deputy Director of the Transport Department to allow future political assistance (political assistance) from the Transport and Housing Bureau. Assistant) to work for three years before being transferred to the original politically appointed position. This approach can introduce competition for the leadership of civil servants, while precipitating the policy thinking and work abilities that political talents should have, and solving politically appointed officials who are not civil servants. The problem of unfamiliar books.”

However, Lin Zhaohui also reminded that "the working ability of the civil service team should not be overly discredited." Regarding the repeated fierce criticism of the civil service team by the society and some political parties, Lin Zhaohui believes that it is unfair, because "the efficiency of Hong Kong civil servants' work according to regulations is unfair. Very high, especially in Lam Cheng, who came from the administrative department, you can see a deep "technocratic" shadow." He believes that this trait helps the civil service team to stay away from corruption and abuse of power. "In the past, mainland scholars appreciated it very much. This kind of effective civil service system, but when the mainland civil service team is becoming more and more clean, and developing flexible administrative methods, it also has a common (political and development) vision. In contrast, the Hong Kong civil service team is conservative and thinks that the procedures are fair. It’s already done."

When the government re-examines the selection and appointment mechanism for high-level civil servants and creates a competitive work environment and performance-linked salary increases and promotion conditions, it will naturally select more capable, ambitious, and visionary "capable" positions. Important posts, to promote civil service organizations to "serve Hong Kong," so as to get rid of the public's negative impression that the civil service team is "conventional."

Source: hk1

All news articles on 2021-10-22

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