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4 The Civil Service: Structure and Functions The Basic Law provides only a general framework for the organisation of the Hong Kong government and has even less to say about the public sector beyond the civil service. Article 48 does specify that the Chief Executive shall lead the government and may appoint judges and holders of public office and Article 62 empowers the government to conduct administrative affairs. Some departments, such as the Police, Immigration, and Customs and Excise, are mentioned in the Basic Law and it is stipulated that there shall be a Commission against Corruption and an Audit Commission, but there is no description of the organisation or powers of any of these bodies. Instead, the Chief Executive may decide, in consultation with the Directors of Bureaus and Heads of Departments, on the way in which their organisations should be structured which may then be formalised in ordinances or in executive orders, regulations and circulars. If new positions are required, or unnecessary ones are deleted, government proposals will be discussed in the Legislative Council. Most bureaus and departments have been organisationally stable for many years1 but refinements are often made as the government takes on new responsibilities, merges bureaus and departments, or ceases to provide services that are no longer necessary. There are also pressures for re-organisation from elected representatives, political parties and interest groups, who reflect changing political, economic and social conditions, and from the government’s own constant search for improvements in efficiency. The underlying principles on which government should be organised have been surprisingly widely shared by political leaders and the public both before and after 1997. The following propositions attract broad support: • that government should be centralised and hierarchically organised; • that the civil service should be run by a generalist administrative elite, selected from the most able candidates available, and that it should be politically neutral;2 • that government should be “small government” and that it should perform only limited functions3 with a focus on fiscal frugality, efficiency and “value for money”4 • that the recruitment and promotion of civil servants should be made on grounds of merit and that most civil servants should enjoy tenured positions for the duration of their working lives;5 and 70 The Public Sector in Hong Kong • that the civil service should be as free of corruption as possible and subject to the rule of law.6 These principles are not as easily achieved as might be supposed. There has sometimes been a sizeable difference between the way in which the government is expected to function and the way in which it actually operates. The Hong Kong government has not always been small or limited in function or corruption-free. The tenure of civil servants and the interpretation of political neutrality have been subject to challenge. Changing economic conditions and the political context in which the government finds itself have also been important factors influencing the structure of government. In this chapter, we will examine the formal structure and functions of the Hong Kong government – the way it is supposed to work — and assess the extent to which practice has deviated from the first three principles. In Chapter 5, we consider the remaining principles and the government’s record in meeting those criteria through its personnel policies. The Structure of Government The Colonial System The formal structure of the Hong Kong government has traditionally been highly centralised. Power has always been concentrated in the hands of a relatively few senior figures, partly because of the political circumstances in which the rulers of Hong Kong found themselves but also because decentralised or devolved government in a small territory has only occasionally been necessary. The civil administration of Hong Kong was promulgated by despatch from the Colonial Office in June 1843.7 In September 1843, the offices of Governor and Colonial Secretary were established together with the Judiciary, Finance, Harbour, Public Works and Lands Departments.8 A Police Force and an Audit Commission were created in 1844.9 For the first twenty years or so, Hong Kong’s administration was chaotic and corrupt. In the next twenty years, civil service reforms produced a strongly centralised system of hierarchically organised departments. The first cadets (later called administrative officers) were appointed in 1862 and soon assumed the most senior positions within the civil service.10 Corruption in the police was addressed later in the 1860s by appointing a cadet as head of the Force.11 And, by the beginning of the...

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