Audit finds senior civil servants underutilized

Senior government officials with high-level skills are not being put to full use, according to the Commission of Audit’s (CA) first performance audit on public sector staffing, released Friday.

The audit – ordered by Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai – identified common issues including the underutilization of highly skilled civil servants in senior roles, based on Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau (SAFP) data, sample checks, and on-site inspections. The annual report includes six observation reports, two of which address issues related to the structure and staffing of public departments.

The report found that some senior technicians at the Finance Services Bureau (DSF) are performing low-level work far below their qualifications, with many carrying insufficient workloads. The mismatch between staff skills and job duties – along with an imbalance between headcount and budget – means the bureau is failing to make the best use of its talent while also creating a “same work, different pay” problem.

The report recommends a comprehensive review of internal staffing across all departments, supported by an effective cross-departmental horizontal personnel transfer mechanism. This includes ensuring that headcount aligns with actual needs and that personnel are placed in appropriate roles.

For professionals in common fields such as finance, accounting, and personnel management, the report suggests that a designated authority coordinate and redeploy human resources to departments in need. “This would both reduce recruitment time and save administrative costs,” the report stated.

The phenomenon of senior technicians being “highly skilled but used in low-level positions” is partly due to administrative and repetitive tasks being assigned to them, preventing them from fully utilizing their expertise. The report suggested streamlining workflows through digitalization.

The report noted that in some units focused on routine tasks, the proportion of senior technicians is relatively high – creating a mismatch with headcount and budget, leading to bloated structures and inefficient operations. At the same time, many departments have chronically understaffed units, which increases communication and management costs.

The report recommends reassessing the necessity and efficiency of maintaining such small units.

The findings also indicated that in smaller units, the proportion of support staff is relatively high. Some of these units have seen their workload significantly shrink due to social and technological changes, while others have had their functions dispersed across different departments or are highly overlapping with those of other departments. This has resulted in underutilized support staff, duplicated resource investment, and increased administrative costs for cross-departmental collaboration.

Meanwhile, in the preface to the annual report, Commissioner of Audit Elsie Ao Ieong U pointed out that the report aims to present audit findings and recommendations, along with the overall operations of the CA, to serve as a reference for public departments and entities in continuously optimizing their management and enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of public resource utilization.

She also expressed hope that the annual report would help residents and the broader community better understand the commission’s work, thereby strengthening the role of collective oversight.

Ao Ieong called on all parties to work together to improve the city’s governance efficiency, support economic development, and promote better living conditions.