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JANUARY 28, 2000 VOL. 26 NO. 3
Brain Drain, the Sequel
High-profile defections rattle the civil service
By YULANDA CHUNG Hong Kong
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ONLINE SPECIAL: Tung Chee-hwa: The expanded online interview >>
Imagine being offered a job paying two to four times your current salary - with no immediate supervisor breathing down your neck. That was the tantalizing prospect dangled before two of Hong Kong's top civil servants. Guess what? Both jumped at the chance. Broadcasting and IT czar Kwong Ki-chi is tipped to head the newly merged stock exchange and clearing company. His annual package will rocket from $278,000 to about $1 million. Meanwhile, Rafael Hui, boss of the financial services bureau, is expected to run the territory's new pension fund; his salary will double to about $500,000.
Call it Brain Drain II. In the 1980s, Hong Kong suffered a talent exodus when people learned China would retake possession of the city in 1997. At the time, the civil service suffered defections but its integrity was not compromised because enough bureaucrats stayed on, considering the salaries and perks attractive - and that they had the respect of the executive branch.
In the wake of the handover and economic Crisis, however, the civil service has lost its sheen - as an institution and employer. The imminent departure of Kwong and Hui, stars slated for greater things, has prompted concern that if such defections continue, the civil service will be left in the hands of mediocre rank-and-file. This is an unhealthy development in a place that has long touted the efficiency and probity of its bureaucrats as guarantors of a level playing field.
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In post-handover Hong Kong, where signs of graft are obsessively monitored, the job-hopping civil servants have prompted warnings that they could lean on their former staff for favors. In fact, the government does have a mechanism to discourage such practices. Departing bureau chiefs are encouraged to undergo a six-month "sanitation" period, during which they should take no private-sector jobs. They also are required to seek permission to take up such posts during the first three years of their retirements. But there is a gaping loophole. Kwong and Hui don't need to get approval because they are resigning, not retiring.
In Hong Kong, money (surprisingly) is not the only factor fueling the trend. Many civil servants are chafing under the administration of Tung Chee-hwa. The chief executive has a well-known penchant for ignoring the advice of his policy secretaries, all career bureaucrats, in favor of his appointed advisers. Not one civil servant sits on Tung's Central Policy Unit, an influential closed-door group packed with businessmen. Last year, bureaucrats recommended against Hong Kong hosting the 2006 Asian Games. Tung decided to proceed - some claim because the son of one of his tycoon associates stands to benefit. "It frustrates the civil service that Tung only listens to a small circle of businessmen," says political analyst Michael DeGolyer.
Moreover, Tung is a mercurial master. Leung Chau-ting, a clerical officer at the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department, says he gets contradictory memos all the time. "One day we are commended. The next day we are ordered to conduct more spot checks on front workers because he has read bad press about us." Under former governor Chris Patten, says a bureaucrat who works closely with Tung, "weekends were weekends." Now, he says, Tung thinks nothing of asking officials to work after official hours. When civil servants go on leave, they tell the boss they are going outside Hong Kong - whether they are or not.
Policy secretaries often don't know what Tung wants. Under Patten, says the senior bureaucrat, officials would make one policy recommendation. "Now they tend to offer three or four alternatives for Tung to choose." Another high-ranking official says the service is no longer an iron rice bowl but a "begging bowl" because bureaucrats must beg legislators for support. Then, once they have won it, Tung backtracks. Since the boss doesn't support his civil servants, they have little negotiating power with legislators. Says the high-ranking official: "I wouldn't encourage my son and daughter to go into the civil service."
That shows how far the reputation of the bureaucracy has slid in less than three years. It is not fair to blame the slide on Tung alone. The abilities of the civil service were exaggerated in the run-up to the handover to help maintain confidence, and many examples of laziness and incompetence have since surfaced. Yet a well-oiled government machinery is crucial, and an accelerating brain drain could be crippling.
One suggested solution is a switch to a ministerial system, whereby Tung would hire all policy secretaries from outside the civil service - or legislators would be potential candidates for ministerial posts. Bureaucrats were reportedly drawing up some kind of blueprint when - what do you know? - Tung quashed it.
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