|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
March 8, 2014 |
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Background Hong Kong after the transfer of sovereignty had inherited the colonial system that all positions in the government are filled by civil servants. This was largely because the system had the merit of efficiency, and had contributed to the success and prosperity of Hong Kong. It was also seen as a symbol of continuity and stability. Nevertheless, Tung was a businessman, who has little experience in politics and public administration. Secretaries of the government had no prior working relations with him. The introduction of the system was seen as an opportunity for him to appoint his subordinates, who will no longer necessary be from the civil services, according to his wishes. Operations The POAS is similar to the Cabinet|cabinet of the United States United States Federal Government|Federal Government in that the Chief Executive is responsible for nominating and replacing the officials. This is a radical departure from the previous system, where secretaries, who are heads of policy bureaux came from the Hong Kong Civil Service|civil service. The POAS officials serve at the Chief's Executive's pleasure, and they are, in theory, held accountable for policy errors and mishaps (as in resigning when major policy flops or scandals occur). In the past only the Chief Secretary, Financial Secretary and Secretary for Justice are ex-officio members of the Executive Council of Hong Kong|Executive Council. Unofficial members were majority in the council. After the introduction of the POAS, all secretaries are appointed to the council, and leaders of the larger parties in the Legislative Council of Hong Kong|Legislative Council are appointed to the council, effectively transforming the council into a cabinet, with the unofficial members like minister-without-portfolio|ministers-without-portfolio. However, accountability did not increase in practice, for former Chief Executive Tung often ignored the policy errors and scandals made by his POAS officials, and asked them to stay. Good examples would be Antony Leung (see Antony_Leung#The_Lexusgate_scandal|Lexusgate scandal for more details), Frederick Ma with his responsibility in a stock crisis that evaporated billions of dollars worth of stock value, and Regina Ip with her controversial promotion of the Basic Law Article 23. It is the belief of many Hong Kong people that under the POAS system, accountability actually decreased. Faith in the system, not high in the beginning already, fell to new lows in 2003, leading many people to dub the system AAS (Accountability Avoidance System). The protection Tung offered to his beleaguered officials was one of the factors that led to the July 1st|1 July protest in which hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong people participated. Only after the protest did Tung reluctantly accepted the resignation of Ip and Leung. Ma remains unscathed. The future of the POAS remains unclear. The current Chief Executive, Donald Tsang (himself a former POAS official) has vowed not to replace any of the POAS officials who were in office before his inauguration. However, it is not known if Tsang would scrap or extensively reform the system after he wins an election in his own right in 2007. However, many Hong Kong people believe that Tsang would hold his POAS officials more accountable for everything they do, and dismiss them when they need to. category:Politics of Hong Kong category:Hong Kong Government zh:????????? This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Principal Officials Accountability System".
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
![[F]](/images/site.gif){kind=small}
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
All informatin on the site is © FamousChinese.com 2002-2005. Last revised: January 2, 2004 Are you interested in our site or/and want to use our information? please read how to contact us and our copyrights. To post your business in our web site? please click here. To send any comments to us, please use the Feedback. To let us provide you with high quality information, you can help us by making a more or less donation: |