The second round of the voluntary retirement scheme could include senior officials, the civil service chief said yesterday.
Joseph Wong Wing-ping said his bureau is consulting departments on who should be included in the scheme. 'The departments could include officers of all grades in the scheme. We haven't said that certain groups of staff should be excluded. Therefore officers of directorate rank could be included,' he said after attending a meeting on tackling the budget deficit.
It is understood that proposals on the second round of the voluntary scheme will be submitted to the Executive Council for discussion on January 14, a week after Tung Chee-hwa delivers his policy address next Wednesday.
The government is considering cutting the size of the civil service to save costs by encouraging staff to retire early.
The first round of the scheme, introduced two years ago, targeted 59 grades where the work had become obsolete or staff were no longer needed. No directorate-grade officers were included. About 10,000 staff were allowed to take early retirement.
