Human Resources

As at 31 March 2001, there are 6 units. The Commissioner, the two Deputy Commissioners and the five Assistant Commissioners form the top management of the Department.

Deputy Commissioner (Technical) is responsible for overseeing the operations of Commissioner's Unit, Unit 1 and Unit 2.

Deputy Commissioner (Operations) is responsible for overseeing the operations of Unit 3, Unit 4 and Headquarters Unit.

**Responsiblities of Units**
Unit	Duties
Commissioner's Unit	Appeals Technical Research Double Taxation Charitable Donations Complaints, and Internal Audit
Unit 1 (managed by 1 Assistant Commissioner)	Tax Processing and Review Profits Tax - Corporations and Partnerships
Unit 2 (managed by 2 Assistant Commissioners)	Tax Processing and Review Salaries Tax, Profits Tax - Sole-proprietorships, Property Tax, and Personal Assessment
Unit 3 (managed by 1 Assistant Commissioner)	Collection Inspection Estate Duty Stamp Duty, and Business Registration
Unit 4 (managed by 1 Assistant Commissioner)	Field Audit and Investigation
Headquarters Unit	Information Systems Training Taxpayer Services, and Departmental Administration

**Overall Establishment**
Unit	Number of Staff
Commissioner's Unit	67
Headquarters Unit	337
Unit 1	407
Unit 2	1,517
Unit 3	752
Unit 4	256
Total	3,336

The Commissioner, the two Deputy Commissioners and the five Assistant Commissioners form the top management of the Department.

As at 31 March 2001, the Department had an establishment of 3,335 permanent posts (including 25 posts for directorate officers) and 1 supernumerary directorate post in 6 Units. Of the total, 2,018 posts were for departmental grades officers (namely Assessors, Taxation Officers and Tax Inspectors), who were required to perform duties directly concerned with taxation. The remaining 1,318 posts were for common / general grades officers, who provided supporting administrative, information technology and clerical services (Figure 39).

**Figure 39 Staff Establishment**
Rank	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01
Assessing Officers (Professional)	718	724	737	724
Taxation Officers	1,168	1,170	1,170	1,164
Tax Inspectors	134	134	134	130
Common/general grade officers	1,324	1,324	1,315	1,318
Total	3,344	3,352	3,356	3,336

Most of the professional officers serving in the Department were below the age of 45 (Figure 40). The ratio of male to female professional officers was 1:1.1.

**Figure 40 Age Profile of Professionals**
Age Group	Male		Female		Total
Age Group	Number of staff	Percentage	Number of staff	Percentage	Number of staff	Percentage
Below 25	3	1%	2	1%	5	1%
25 to below 35	89	27%	142	37%	231	32%
35 to below 45	123	37%	174	46%	297	42%
45 to below 55	109	33%	62	16%	171	24%
55 and over	8	2%	0	0%	8	1%
Total	332	100%	380	100%	712	100%

In 2000-01, 28 departmental grades officers and 9 general grades officers were promoted. 94 officers were recruited by or transferred to the Department. During the year, 147 officers left the Department.

The Department is committed to enabling staff to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes which are necessary if they are to contribute their best to the achievement of our vision of becoming an excellent tax administration. During 2000-01, a total of 16,227 man-days were spent on staff training and development, representing an increase of almost 29% over the figure for the previous year.

The Department's Training Section conducts a two-part taxation law and practice course with formal examinations for newly appointed Assistant Assessors. Induction courses are also conducted for all grades of staff upon their joining the Department, as well as weekly orientation talks and tours for new comers.

During the year, 10 seminars, with 1,499 participants, were held under the in-house Continuing Professional Education (CPE) Programme. The topics of the seminars were chosen with a view to keeping officers abreast of the latest tax issues, and to widen their knowledge in related fields.

1. E-commerce and its tax implications
2. The Winning Path (an experience sharing session on Board of Review proceedings)
3. Video seminar "In Search of Excellence"
4. Tax Update
5. Latest Developments in Information System Strategy (ISS) Projects

1. Emotional Intelligence [EQ] - An Overview
2. International Accounting Standards
3. Growth Enterprise Market
4. E-learning in the Hong Kong Civil Service
5. An Overview of the Mandatory Provident Fund system

Besides the CPE Programme, the Department also encourages and sponsors officers to attend seminars organized by academic and professional institutes. During the year, 103 officers were sponsored by the Department to attend such seminars.

Officers were sent to overseas training courses to broaden perspective, enhance knowledge and expertise, and develop management and leadership skills and potential.

During 2000-01, 18 professional officers attended overseas courses in Australia, Korea, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States. In addition, 1 officer attended a course at Tsinghua University in Beijing, and 2 officers went on familiarization visits to Changdu, Mianyang, Guiyang and Zunyi.

Officials of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) visited the Department and delivered a 2-day seminar on current international tax issues, including e-commerce, harmful tax practice and double tax arrangements.

Our officers also attended a wide range of courses on other topics, including Putonghua and English language training, the use of Chinese in official writing, report writing skills, human resources management and computer applications. These courses were organized by the Civil Service Training and Development Institute and other external organizations.

The Department recognizes that it is important to effectively communicate with staff at all levels if we are to maxmise the Department's operational efficiency and productivity.

An important channel of communication is the Departmental Consultative Committee, which is chaired by the Deputy Commissioner (Operations). The DCC enables management and staff representatives to exchange views on a wide range of issues of mutual concern. These include recruitment, promotions, career postings, training, working environment, office security and safety, and staff welfare. The DCC helps to promote better understanding and co-operation between both parties.

Staff members of the clerical and secretarial grades continue to make good use of the General Grades Consultative Committee to discuss matters relating to their grades with the management.

To further enhance communication between senior management directorate officers and the non-directorate officers, the "Meet-the-Staff Programme" runs well in soliciting feedback from staff in respect of specific issues they are likely to have an interest in.

During 2000-01, the Department received 13 constructive suggestions from staff through the Staff Suggestion Scheme. Many of them have been put into practice. Six of the officers concerned were granted cash awards in recognition of their contributions and efforts.

This one-year pilot programme was introduced to encourage staff to map out improvement proposals which would be beneficial to both management and staff. The results were very encouraging, with a total of 17 improvement projects proposed by the 8 Excellent Service Teams.

The Departmental Newsletter is published quarterly to disseminate information to staff about the activities of and changes in the Department. With articles and contributions from staff, it provides an additional communication channel between management and staff.

The Fund helps to relieve hardship by providing interest-free loans and grants to staff with unexpected financial difficulties.

In 2000-01, 30 long-serving officers were granted awards of free travel, together with their spouses, under the Long Service Travel Award Scheme.

In pursuance of the Association's objective of promoting members' social, intellectual and athletic interests, the Association organized a wide variety of social and recreational activities for the staff and their family in the year 2000-01. These activities included a Fun Fair, the Annual Dinner, a Spring Festival Concert, Lantern Festival Riddles, camping outings, health talks, courses, sports events and competitions. All activities were well received by the members.

Besides providing activities for the benefit of its members, the Association also contributes to society. In February 2001, the General Committee of the Association joined the "New Territories Walk" organized by the Community Chest. More than $20,000 was raised for the Community Chest on this occasion.