Comparing the size of Hong Kong's civil service with that of Singapore in an effort to justify job cuts was inappropriate and unfair, an academic and a unionist have said. Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, a specialist on public administration at City University, said there was no way to objectively compare civil service sizes. Singapore has a population of three million and a civil service of 60,000, while Hong Kong's 187,000 public servants are drawn from a population of 6.8 million. However, despite its smaller size, Singapore's government spending is equivalent to more than 20 per cent of its gross domestic product, close to the 23 per cent in the SAR. Some economists and business figures have pointed to the size of Singapore's civil service in their calls for cuts in the SAR. Pay and benefits for civil servants and publicly funded bodies' staff takes up over 70 per cent of recurrent government spending. Financial Secretary Antony Leung Kam-chung announced in his Budget a likely 4.75 per cent pay cut for the 340,000 government-paid staff, which could save $6 billion a year. Professor Cheung said the size of the civil service in the 1990s was higher than now, yet public expenditure was equivalent to a lower portion of the gross domestic product. Total public expenditure accounted for about 17 per cent of GDP in the 1990s, rising to 23 per cent now. The total number of civil servants peaked in 1999 at 197,000. It will go down from the present 187,000 to 181,000 by the end of next year, similar to the 1986 level. Professor Cheung said that according to a report by Taiwan's Executive Yuan in 1999, the size of the civil service in Hong Kong, in proportion to its population, was higher than that of Singapore, but lower than some Western countries, such as Australia, Britain and Canada. He said civil service spending should be reduced through other means, including the employment of staff on contract terms, outsourcing and privatisation, and a freeze on vacant posts. Stephen Wong Wai-hung, convenor of the Joint Committee of Disciplined Services Staff Unions/ Associations, agreed that it was unfair to compare Hong Kong with Singapore. 'They don't have any police patrolling the streets. If we are to follow suit, 10,000 posts could be cut,' he said. Dr Eden Woon Yi-teng, director of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, said there were too many layers in the bureaucratic machinery and it should be simplified. Graphic: GOV18GET
