Structure of the Administration

The HKSAR Government is organised into bureaux and departments. The bureaux, each headed by a policy secretary, collectively form the Government Secretariat. In 2001, there were 16 policy bureaux of which two were resource bureaux concerned with finance and the Public Service respectively. At present, all policy secretaries are civil servants. In the light of community aspirations for policy secretaries to be held politically accountable for the outcome of their policies, the Chief Executive proposed to introduce a new system of appointing the Chief Secretary for Administration, the Financial Secretary, the Secretary for Justice and most policy secretaries. Under the proposed new system, these officials would no longer be civil servants. Their term of office would not exceed that of the Chief Executive who nominated them. They would all be appointed to the Executive Council. The decision on whether the proposed new system should be implemented would be taken by the second term Chief Executive.

There are 69 departments and agencies whose heads are, with a few exceptions, responsible to the bureau secretaries for the direction of their departments and the efficient implementation of approved policy. The exceptions are the Audit Commission, the independence of which is safeguarded by having the Director report directly to the Legislative Council; the Independent Commission Against Corruption and the Office of The Ombudsman, whose independence is safeguarded by having the Commissioner and The Ombudsman report directly to the Chief Executive; and the Department of Justice, which comes under the Secretary for Justice.