Civil Service Bureau
Addressing the ceremony, Mrs Yeung commended the awardees for their dedication to serving the public, whether through their work or volunteer service, which set outstanding examples for the civil service. She said that strengthening the governance capabilities of the civil service is a key initiative of the Civil Service Bureau (CSB) in this year's Policy Address, and one of the major achievements in this regard is the promulgation of the updated Civil Service Code (the Code) in June this year. The Code outlines the core values that civil servants should uphold, including passion for public service, dedication to duty, and being people-oriented, which are fully reflected in the achievements of the awardees of the SCS' Commendation Award Scheme.
The SCS's Commendation Award Scheme was introduced in 2004 to commend staff members who have achieved exemplary work performance continuously for five years or above. The scheme has a rigorous selection process requiring nominations from Permanent Secretaries, departmental heads or heads of grades and adjudication by a selection committee; the final decision on the awardees’ list is made by the SCS. This year, a total of 100 civil servants from 42 bureaux and departments across 51 grades, including professional and technical grades, disciplined services and general grades, received the award (see the list of award recipients on pages 5-6).
With a view to motivating civil servants, including those with shorter service, to continuously strive for excellence, the CSB enhanced the SCS' Commendation Award Scheme this year by lifting the minimum service length requirement for an awardee to sustain 20 years of service for obtaining the travel award. A total of 12 civil servants with 5 to 17 years of service benefited from this initiative.
As for the Civil Service Volunteer Commendation Scheme newly launched this year, six departmental volunteer teams received the Outstanding Volunteer Team Award, and eight volunteer teams received the Meritorious Volunteer Service Award. Besides, 337 civil servants were presented with individual awards under the scheme (see the list of award recipients on pages 6 to 8). Criteria for the awards included volunteer service hours; diversity of scope and type of volunteer service; features or innovativeness of activities; leadership of individual volunteers to mobilise colleagues to participate in volunteer activities; partnerships with departmental volunteer teams and collaborating organisations as well as continuous and dedicated efforts in planning and organising activities for departmental volunteer teams. Serving civil servants, non-civil service contract staff and retired civil servants are eligible for nomination for the awards.
Through the Civil Service Volunteer Commendation Scheme, civil servants' contribution to volunteer service will be recognised on a regular basis, further motivating more civil servants to take part in volunteer service, promoting a caring and supportive culture of volunteerism within the civil service, and enabling the public to have a better understanding of the civil service's efforts in helping the needy.
