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Government of Hong Kong |
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| Politics and government of Hong Kong |
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Education - Geography - History Hong Kong Portal |
| Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China | |||||||
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| Traditional Chinese: | 中華人民共和國香港特別行政區政府 | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese: | 中华人民共和国香港特别行政区政府 | ||||||
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| Hong Kong Government | |||||||
| Traditional Chinese: | 香港政府 | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese: | 香港政府 | ||||||
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The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China; conventional short name Hong Kong Government, led by the Chief Executive as Head of the Government. The affairs of the Government are decided by secretaries, who are appointed by the Chief Executive and endorsed by the Central People's Government in Beijing. As a special administrative region of the PRC, Hong Kong has a high degree of autonomy, in light of the "One Country, Two Systems" policy. The Hong Kong Government, financially independent from the CPG, oversees the affairs of Hong Kong.
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The Chief Executive (CE) is responsible for the administration of Hong Kong. The affairs of the Government are decided by secretaries, who are appointed by the Chief Executive and endorsed by the Central People's Government in Beijing. The Chief Executive of Hong Kong replaced the Governor General of Hong Kong after 1997 as head of the government in Hong Kong. The CE reports to the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China.
The Chief Executive is assisted by the Chief Secretary for Administration (CS) and the Financial Secretary (FS), and other secretaries who heads policy bureaux. The Secretary for Justice (SJ) is responsible for legal matters of the government and prosecution for criminal cases in the territory. The Independent Commission Against Corruption and Audit Commission report directly to the CE.
The current Chief Executive is Donald Tsang.
The Executive Council (ExCo) consists of the CE and the secretaries (ex officio members) and other appointed members (non-ex-officio members). Under the Basic Law, it is to assist the Chief Executive in policy-making.
In a system popularly called the Principal Officials Accountability System introduced by then Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa in July 2002, all principal officials, including the Chief Secretary, Financial Secretary, Secretary for Justice and heads of government bureaux would no longer be politically neutral career civil servants, but would all be political appointees chosen by the Chief Executive from within or outside the civil service. The system was portrayed as the key to solve previous administrative problems, notably the cooperation of high ranking civil servants with the Chief Executive.
Under the new system, there are 3 Secretaries of Department and 11 Directors of Bureau. The system is aimed at raising the accountability of the civil service, so the political appointees are responsible for all their job aspects and will step down if they make any failure. Under the new system, all heads of bureaux became members of the Executive Council, and came directly under the Chief Executive instead of the Chief Secretary or the Financial Secretary.
The government released a report on the Further Development of the Political Appointment System1 on 17 October 2007, 2. Two new layers, Deputy Directors of Bureaux and Assistants to Directors (AD) would be added to the political appointments. Each Director of Bureau will be assisted by the two new appointees and constitute the political team, who would ostensibly work closely with bureau secretaries and top civil servants in implementing the Chief Executive's policy agenda in an executive-led government. As with the principal officials, these 2 new posts can also be drawn from within or outside the civil service, and appointees may be with or without political background.3
Eight new Under-secretaries were named on 20 May, and nine Political Assistant appointments were announced on 22 May 2008. By its own admission, the announcements have been poorly handled, and there has been widespread criticism of several key aspects of the appointments, namely the nationality and experience of appointees, the transparency of the recruitment process and of officials' salaries.4
The Chief Secretary for Administration is responsible for assisting the Chief Executive in supervision of policy bureaux, and plays a key role in ensuring harmony in policy formulation and implementation. The current Chief Secretary, since 1 July 2007, is the Honourable Mr Henry Tang Ying-nian
The Financial Secretary is responsible for preparing the Government Budget in accordance with the Chief Executive's agenda in the policy address, ensuring policy is in accordance to the Public Finance Ordinance. He has to estimate of revenue and expenditure before the Legislative Council each year, and to deliver an annual budget to the Legislative Council, outlining the government's budgetary proposals and moving the appropriation bills. The current FS is the Honourable John Tsang.
The Office of the Chief Executive is responsible for ensuring the Chief Executive receives the best advice and support for formulating and co-ordinating policies. It is headed by the Director of the Chief Executive's Office, who would sit in meetings of the Executive Council.
Units under the Chief Secretary for Administration's Office are the Administration Wing, the Efficiency Unit, the Protocol Division, the Government Records Service and the Sustainable Development Unit.
The Economic Analysis and Business Facilitation Unit is under the Financial Secretary's Office.
The Department of Justice is led by the Secretary for Justice (Legal Department and Attorney General before the transfer of sovereignty). The Secretary for Justice (SJ) is responsible for all prosecutions in Hong Kong, drafting all Government legislation, and advising other policy bureaux and departments of the governmenton a vast array of legal issues.
The current Secretary for Justice is the Honourable Wong Yan Lung SC.
The department consists of the Prosecutions Division, the Civil Division, the Legal Policy Division, the Law Drafting Division, the International Law Division, and the Administration and Development Division.
After the reorganisation in 2007, the Government Secretariat today consists of twelve policy bureaux. It is officially headed by the Chief Secretary for Administration.
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