LCQ19: Wastage of the Administrative Officer and Executive Officer grades staff
Following is a question by the Hon Lam Cheuk-ting and a written reply by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Joshua Law, in the Legislative Council today (March 20):
Question:
Regarding the wastage of the Administrative Officer (AO) and Executive Officer (EO) grades staff, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the wastage of (a) directorate and (b) non-directorate officers in the two grades in the past three financial years, with a breakdown by reason for departure (i.e. retirement and other reasons) (set out in the table below); and
| AO grade | EO grade | |||||||||||
| Financial Year | Retirement | Other reasons | Total | Retirement | Other reasons | Total | ||||||
| (a) | (b) | (a) | (b) | (a) | (b) | (a) | (b) | (a) | (b) | (a) | (b) | |
| 2015-2016 | ||||||||||||
| 2016-2017 | ||||||||||||
| 2017-2018 | ||||||||||||
(2) of the measures in place to reduce the wastage of staff in the two grades?
Reply:
President,
My consolidated reply to the two parts of the question is as follows:
The number of (a) directorate and (b) non-directorate officers in the Administrative Officer (AO) grade and Executive Officer (EO) grade who left the service from 2015/16 to 2017/18 financial year is tabulated below:
| AO grade | EO grade | |||||||||||
| Financial Year | Retirement | Other reasons | Total | Retirement | Other reasons | Total | ||||||
| (a) | (b) | (a) | (b) | (a) | (b) | (a) | (b) | (a) | (b) | (a) | (b) | |
| 2015-2016 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 10 | 8 | 9 | 24 | 1 | 39 | 10 | 63 |
| 2016-2017 | 14 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 17 | 7 | 7 | 36 | 0 | 55 | 7 | 91 |
| 2017-2018 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 10 | 5 | 11 | 26 | 1 | 73 | 12 | 99 |
The wastage rate of the AO grade in the three aforementioned financial years was 2.9%, 3.8% and 2.3% respectively, and that of the EO grade was 2.4%, 3.0% and 3.4% respectively. The wastage rate of both grades during the same period was lower than that of the civil service as a whole, which was 4.7%, 4.7% and 5.1% respectively. Besides reaching retirement age, other reasons for leaving the service included resignation, completion of agreement and death. The major reasons for resignation included marriage or family reasons, taking up jobs in outside bodies and pursuing further studies etc.
The Civil Service Bureau will continue to pay attention to the vacancy situation of the AO and EO grades across all ranks, and will carry out recruitment and promotion exercises timely. We will also continue to maintain close communication with officers of the two grades, and will understand their work through different channels and provide suitable assistance.