bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

SCMP Reporter

THE administration has broken down because of interference by Legislative Councillors, a senior civil servant said as he left the service.

  Clive Grossman QC, a deputy Crown prosecutor, fired a broadside at Legco members, accusing them of withholding vital resources and heaping criticism on administrators for minor mistakes.

   ''The Legislative Council has two major functions - to oversee the most thriving economy in the world and to prepare the people of Hong Kong for the changeover in 1997. And what do they do? Instead, they interfere with middle management or government departments,'' he said as he retired from the Legal Department.

  Mr Grossman revealed that another 15 experienced prosecutors, both expatriate and local, out of a total of about 80 were expected to leave this year.

  ''It is becoming impossible to run a government department,'' he said.

  ''The expats' applications for extensions, renewals or consultancy posts are being lost in administrative bureaucracy so the future is very uncertain. People are leaving because of this,'' he said.

  Applications for new posts had to go through Civil Service Branch, Finance Branch, the Public Service Commission and the Legco establishment sub-committee and never seemed to come out.

  Mr Grossman, 54, took over the unit fighting commercial crime after its former head, Warwick Reid, was arrested for corruption in 1989.

   Morale was at an all-time low with rumours of more arrests, and the integrity of the department been impugned.

  ''We have recovered from Reid's legacy of doubts and questions over the department but there are a set of new problems,'' Mr Grossman said. ''The career development of everyone in the department is uncertain because of the incompetence of the administration.

  ''People who want to stay have been given short extensions of a few months while the administration considers whether they can have their contract renewed, or a consultancy be created or an extension.

  ''Recruitment procedures are cumbersome and are taking so long that sometimes applicants are no longer interested when a job is finally offered.

  ''Everyone accepts that localisation is inevitable, but the way in which it is being done is so inefficient it is causing distress to expats and locals, none of whom are having their expectations fulfilled,'' he said.

  Mr Grossman, who is going into private practice, said it was time for him to move on.

   Widely tipped at one time to be the next Director of Public Prosecutions, he said last year it was right that the post should go to a local at this stage of Hong Kong's development.

  The post was thankless, he said, having often acted in the position when John Wood was on holiday. Mr Wood leaves the job in August after five years.

  Mr Grossman pointed out that while the Independent Commission Against Corruption had recently been given 40 more investigators, and new legislation such as the Bill of Rights and Computer Crime Ordinance had meant more prosecutions were inevitable, no more resources were available for the Legal Department, which had to advise on investigations and then prosecute.

  ''We have to deal with this while losing vast numbers of experienced people. The community can't expect the job to be done without an increase in resources. Instead we get criticism from Legco when any trivial thing goes wrong.

  ''I believe when the history of Hong Kong is written, the people of the territory will record a great debt to the Legal Department. I think they do a very good job indeed,'' he said.

  ''People think if there's an acquittal, the Legal Department must have made a mistake, and if costs have to be paid we are told our mistakes cost taxpayers money. Most of the press take this line as well. But it may be the judge has made a mistake in acquitting the defendants, or it may be many other things. It does not mean we were not right to bring the prosecutions in the first place.

  ''The only way of judging efficiency of law and order is to compare the rate of arrests and the rate of convictions. The rate of both is very high compared with other jurisdictions - for convictions it is about 70 per cent, which is higher than all othercommon law countries.

  Mr Grossman came to Hong Kong as a Crown counsel in August 1983 from Zimbabwe. In his first week, he saw the Carrian empire tumble in the territory's biggest corporate collapse - the consequences of which were to dominate his life for the next four years- Typhoon Ellen and the collapse of the Hong Kong dollar.

  Immediately, he was set to work in the commercial crime unit to help with the investigation of Carrian's collapse, and worked on nothing else until 1987. Until he left the department on Friday, he maintained a supervisory role over other related Carrian cases.



Prosecutor lashes out at Legco 'meddling'