Financial Secretary Antony Leung Kam-chung yesterday moved to ease fears among civil servants that more cuts in benefits were in the pipeline.
Speaking for the first time after the passage of the pay-cut bill, he emphasised the most important task now was to make the best use of existing resources by improving government operations.
Mr Leung had projected an annual saving of $6 billion in government expenditure in his March Budget, assuming all 180,000 civil servants and another 150,000 staff in subvented bodies took a 4.75 per cent pay cut. The revised pay cuts of between 1.58 per cent and 4.42 per cent will take effect in October, providing an annual saving of $3 billion.
Mr Leung maintained it was important to keep the growth of public expenditure below economic growth. 'We will study all measures to achieve that . . . I won't think about how to cut benefits and wages. The most important thing is to make best use of resources,' he said. This could be done by streamlining processes, contracting out and privatisations, he said.
Mr Leung maintained there was no immediate plan to cut welfare payments, but said: 'Under a long period of deflation, we need to review all expenditure.'
Separately, Secretary for Civil Service Joseph Wong Wing-ping said he would strengthen communications with all civil service unions. He said that apart from explaining the pay-cut decision, it was important that the government's partnership with the unions was enhanced. 'We need to solve a range of other issues, some of which will be controversial,' said Mr Wong.