Maximum bonuses for hospital chiefs

The 31 executives received 'performance incentive' payments totalling $12.6m

The Hospital Authority's 31 senior executives all received the maximum amount for their most recent annual gratuities, which should in principle have been dictated by their performances, a source said.

Medical sector legislator Lo Wing-lok criticised the payments, totalling $12.6 million for the 2002-2003 financial year, saying it was a waste of money to conduct assessments of the executives' performance if they were all going to receive the maximum amount. A nurses' union representative said the payments were 'demoralising' to frontline hospital workers.

The recipients include Hospital Authority chief executive William Ho Shiu-wei - whose payment was about $1 million, the medical community source said - and the chief executives of public hospitals.

The 'annual performance incentive awards' system was adopted in 1991. Payments are made at the end of each executive's contract year, depending when they started their jobs. The authority refused to disclose how much the executives were given and argued that the payments were a legitimate part of the executives' remuneration packages.

Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Yeoh Eng-kiong said the awards were not extra payments but simply part of the executives' annual salaries. 'It provides a very effective annual performance incentive,' he said. 'The [performance] assessments were done by a panel comprising the chairman of the authority, the head of the authority's six standing committees, and a representative of the bureau.'