The finest civil servants that money can buy

The Leung Chin-man saga was a hot topic in the recent Legislative Council election television debates. It has caused much concern, and reflected the neglect on the part of the Tung and Tsang administrations, which have done nothing in response to the spreading perception of collusion between top civil servants and big business groups.

Several years ago, a popular saying emerged on the mainland: in the past, tycoons were eager to please senior cadres, now it is the other way round.

Apparently this applies to Hong Kong, too.

Under British rule, senior civil servants were offered attractive packages comparable with that for senior corporate executives. The former enjoyed lifelong pensions and respectability. As a rule, chief secretaries and financial secretaries were given knighthoods; bureau chiefs, CBEs; and department heads, OBEs, when they approached retirement.

Such arrangements were designed to discourage senior civil servants from accepting full-paid jobs after departing the civil service, a culture fostered among the British and colonial civil servants. Today the younger generation of Hong Kong's senior civil servants can expect only contributory, lump-sum payments at the end of their careers; and their financial remuneration as well as social status have been in relative decline compared with senior corporate executives. Hence, the temptation to join the corporate world after retirement has been on the rise.

Comparisons with Japan and America may be interesting. Since the war, political power in Japan has largely remained in the hands of the triumvirate among the governing Liberal Democratic Party, the bureaucracy and the keiretsu (business conglomerates). Close ties between the bureaucracy and keiretsu were generally accepted by the people.

Senior civil servants in Japan retire early, in their late 40s or early 50s, to encourage broad changes, and they then go onto a second career with the major corporations. Civil service pay is quite low in Japan, and retirement benefits are limited. Earning a high salary in the business world after retirement is perceived as a kind of compensation and is broadly accepted; at the same time, government support and guidance for the keiretsu are also accepted.