Opinion | Will new accountability system be fair to Hong Kong’s civil servants?

Alarm and despondency could spread through Hong Kong’s civil service in the coming weeks as the significance of last month’s policy address begins to sink in. The proposal to introduce a heads of department accountability system and make other changes to performance assessment methodology is a real game changer.

Despite ritual praise of our 170,000 officials as “an outstanding team”, it is clear Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu feels there is considerable scope for improvement in management, and under existing arrangements it is too hard to fire or otherwise discipline non-performers.

The main change involves creating a new system to put heads of department on the same level of accountability for implementation as ministers have for policy formulation.

The Public Service Commission will become a problem investigation agency in addition to its traditional remit of acting to ensure fairness in all matters relating to civil service recruitment, promotion and management. How it will handle the revised schedule and any conflicts of purpose remains to be seen.

The Civil Service Bureau has also been charged with strengthening the performance appraisal system applicable to all civil servants to make it focus more rigorously on effectiveness.

The first thing that needs to be said is that a system of accountability already exists as part of the current disciplinary process which covers all civil servants up to and including heads of department. I know this for a fact as that process was applied to me personally 20 years ago. It would be interesting to learn which particular recent events caused the chief executive to conclude that the existing system was insufficient.

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