I agree with H. Hiew’s letter “Why Hong Kong needs civil service reform” (August 17); since 2003, our administration has stagnated. Former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa introduced the Principal Officials Accountability System with the promise of “an open, enlightened and progressive government”. This bid to resolve difficulties in governance floundered from the start as finding capable people in society willing to serve in the administration proved extremely difficult.
Accordingly, glorified administrative officers have been promoted to bureau chiefs, which has only established another layer of bureaucracy. And their inclusion in the Executive Council has emasculated policymaking: the council has become the chief executive’s echo chamber with non-official members on the periphery.
Pre-1997, departmental chiefs were predominantly professional-grade civil servants with an explicit understanding of their portfolios. Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, as chief executive, promoted administrative officers to departmental directors. The result has been diminishing expertise and incompetence.
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It is no wonder that almost every government undertaking ends up far over budget and long delayed. The civil service needs to regain its professionalism, and stop the “tyranny” of administrative officers who only seem to know how to procedurally procrastinate and divest decision-making to tycoons, vested interests and paid consultants. Unfortunately, there is little hope of change as Chief Executive Carrie Lam Yuet-nor is cut from the same cloth as Tsang.
H. Hiew’s view on our Legislative Council is also valid, but it is not just the opposition parties who do not provide meaningful check and balances, as the pro-establishment members are just as bad, if not worse.
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China’s top legislative body extends Legco by ‘not less than one year’
China’s top legislative body extends Legco by ‘not less than one year’
The governance system that used to run smoothly has lost its wheels, as no one seems to take initiative and responsibility, and certainly no one is held accountable. With such a governance vacuum, we must thank Luo Huining, director of the Liaison Office, as since January, he has showed effective decision making.
