| 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, commonly the Hong Kong Government, is led by the Chief Executive as Head of the Government, who is also the head of the Hong Kong SAR. 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. Under the "One Country, Two Systems" policy, Hong Kong has a high degree of autonomy. The Hong Kong Government, financially independent from the Government of the People's Republic of China, oversees the affairs of Hong Kong.
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The Chief Executive is the head of government of the Hong Kong. The Basic Law designates a system of governance led by a Chief Executive and an Executive Council, with a two-tiered system of semi-representative government and an independent judiciary. The Chief Executive is elected by an Election Committee, an 800-member electoral college consisting of individuals and bodies (i.e. special interest groups) elected within 28 functional constituencies defined in the Basic Law. The winner is then appointed to the position by the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China. The Chief Executive is responsible for implementing the Basic Law, signing bills and budgets, promulgating laws, making decisions on government policies and issuing Executive Orders. He is assisted in policy making by the Executive Council.[1]
As of 1 July 1997, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong officially replaced the Governor of Hong Kong as the head of the government for Hong Kong from the transfer of sovereignty. The Chief Executive is assisted by the Chief Secretary for Administration and the Financial Secretary, and other secretaries who heads policy bureaux. The secretaries for each government affairs are appointed by the Chief Executive and endorsed by the Central People's Government. 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 Chief Executive. The current Chief Executive is Donald Tsang.
The Executive Council decides on matters of policy, the introduction of bills to the Legislative Council and the drafting of subordinate legislation. The Council consists of 15 principal officials and 14 non-official members. All members are appointed by the Chief Executive from among the senior officials of the executive authorities, members of the Legislative Council, and other influential public personnels. They serve for a period no longer than the expiry of the Chief Executive's term of office.[1]
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 12 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 System[2] on 17 October 2007,.[3] 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.[4]
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.[5]
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 is Mr. Stephen Lam Sui Lun.
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 Secretary for Justice is responsible for prosecutions and legal matters. He or she heads the Department of Justice.
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.
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 government on 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. Nine of which reports to the Chief Secretary, and the other three reports to the Finance Secretary. The Chief Secretary is customarily considered to be the leader of the bureaux.
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