07-04-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong lawmakers question need for 3 new roles in Chief Executive's Office
Lawmakers have questioned the need to create three more positions in the office of Hong Kong's leader amid the budget deficit, but an official has stressed the roles will support a 'new culture' of better informing the public about policies.
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The planned recruitment involved two information officers and a driver, who will cost taxpayers HK$2.66 million (US$342,120) annually in total. The budget for the Chief Executive's Office reached HK$130 million this year, after increasing by 7.8 per cent, or HK$9.2 million, over the previous year, surpassing the average spending hike of other government departments.
'Is [the hire] in line with the financial secretary's call for everyone to endure the difficult time together?' lawmaker Tik Chi-yuen said during a Legislative Council finance committee meeting on Monday.
'Shouldn't the Chief Executive's Office set an example? Which department doesn't have more work to do? ... They all reduced manpower.'
Tik was referring to finance chief Paul Chan Mo-po's budget address delivered in February, in which the minister said 10,000 civil service jobs would be axed by 2027 and the government would cut spending by 7 per cent over the coming three years to help reduce the HK$87.2 billion deficit.
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But Kevin Choi, permanent secretary from the Chief Executive's Office, sought to justify the new positions by noting the operation was relatively small with about 100 staff members.
'The work [to be performed by the new hires] could support the chief executive under the new culture and try to make the public and citizens directly informed of the policy,' he said.
