51 Hong Kong civil servants fired in last financial year, exceeding average over previous 5 years
Hong Kong Free Press
The Hong Kong government dismissed 51 civil servants in the financial year of 2023-24, which exceeded the yearly average from the past five years, an official document has revealed.
A total of 1,072 members of the civil service were penalised with formal disciplinary action for serious misconduct or criminal conviction between the 2019-20 and 2023-24 financial years, the Civil Service Bureau said on Monday in a document submitted to the legislature. Among them, 214 were removed from the service.
Separately, 2,080 civil servants were punished with “summary disciplinary action” for misconduct of a less serious nature during the same time period. In the 2023-24 financial year, 51 civil servants were fired. In the previous five years, an average of 39 officers were laid off annually.
According to the document, the bureau said it had been striving to enhance the civil service disciplinary mechanism, with new policies introduced last year. In January, the government began requiring departments to report the progress of their handling of disciplinary cases to their senior management and the Civil Service Bureau every six months.
The new requirement aimed to enhance scrutiny of the processing time of disciplinary cases by the department’s senior management and the bureau, according to the document.
Government bureaux and departments were also told to more closely monitor the summary disciplinary actions imposed against civil servants on probation.
By the end of 2024, four workshops to train department managers on investigating disciplinary cases would be carried out by the Secretariat on Civil Service Discipline, the bureau said.
During the Panel on Public Service meeting on Monday, lawmaker Lam Chun-sing raised concerns that the frequent reviews of the civil service disciplinary system would give people an impression that the discipline of civil servants was poor.
“If we review these disciplinary mechanisms every year, would it put pressure on civil servants? Or would it affect their morale?” Lam asked, adding if a one-off comprehensive review would be better.
In response, Secretary for Civil Service Ingrid Yeung said the government’s move to streamline a system for sacking underperforming civil servants last year was not discipline-related. Instead of rolling out a comprehensive overhaul as Lam suggested, Yeung said the authorities would adopt a “step-by-step” approach in reviewing the Public Service (Administration) Order to see if there were any areas that could be streamlined.
“We believe that this step-by-step approach is better than asking the departments and our colleagues to adjust to so many changes,” the minister said in Cantonese.
In June, the Hong Kong government rolled out an updated Civil Service Code, which highlighted the constitutional roles and responsibilities of civil servants as members of the executive authorities.
The code also underlined the core values and standards of conducts civil servants should maintain: upholding the constitutional order and national security; people-oriented; passion for public service; dedication to duty; commitment to the rule of law; integrity; political neutrality; professionalism; team spirit; outcome-focused; accountability for performance; and confidentiality.
Hong Kong employs around 172,395 civil servants working across government departments. The city’s civil service has seen an uptick in resignations in recent years amid an emigration wave and the introduction of the compulsory oath of allegiance to the government.
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