Comprehensive review: Chairman of the Committee on Review of Post-service Outside Work for Directorate Civil Servants Ronald Arculli says the group's recommendations strengthen the existing control regime.

The Committee on Review of Post-service Outside Work for Directorate Civil Servants has suggested lengthening the control period for civil servants at D4 to D8 levels while maintaining the minimum sanitisation period.

Speaking at a press conference this afternoon committee chairman Ronald Arculli said members made 23 recommendations in their report to the Chief Executive.

"These recommendations aim to strengthen the existing control regime and to mitigate public suspicion or perception of impropriety in a directorate civil servant's post-service outside work," Mr Arculli said.

Under the current system a directorate civil servant must obtain prior approval before taking up post-service outside work during the control period. The committee recommended the control period for directorate civil servants at D1 to D3 should be maintained at two years.

For those at D4 to D7 levels the control period should be extended to three years while that for those at D8 should be lengthened to five years.

The control-period length should not be determined by specified fields of work during government service or by post-service outside work in the same field as a directorate civil servant's past government duties.

Further suggestions

Other major recommendations are:

* the policy objective of the control regime should be expanded to make specific references to avoiding suspicion or perception of 'deferred reward', and making good use of limited human resources;

* former directorate civil servants should not be subject to a lifetime total ban on paid post-service outside work;

* more information should be provided by a directorate civil servant when applying for permission to take up post-service outside work;

* applications from directorate civil servants at D4 to D8 should be assessed with reference to their last six years of active government service;

* advisory committee membership should be expanded to nine members and the committee's secretariat should be independent of the Civil Service Bureau;

* the imposition and enforcement of work restrictions should be strengthened, and the decision authority should set out the review and appeal channels when notifying an applicant of the decision on his application; and,

* the public disclosure arrangement covering all approved and taken-up post-service work by directorate civil servants at D4 to D8 should be extended to cover junior directorate civil servants at D1 to D3.

Political appointees

The committee also submitted views on the post-office employment control of politically-appointed officials. However, it has not examined the rationale behind the control regime because the matter is outside its terms of reference.

In view of the importance of the matter and given the public concern, the committee urged the Chief Executive to conduct a separate review on the issue.

Thanking the committee for their work Chief Executive Donald Tsang said the administration will consider the recommendations carefully, consult the staff side, and formulate its response.

"The fundamental issue at stake is how to strike an appropriate balance between protection of the public interest and protection of directorate civil servants' right to work.

"Although the control arrangements for post-service employment of politically appointed officials are outside the terms of reference of the review committee, we will also carefully consider their observation in this regard."