Human Resources

As at 31 March 2002, 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 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 Business Registration
Unit 4 (managed by 1 Assistant Commissioner)	Field Audit and Investigation
Headquarters Unit	Information Systems Training Taxpayer Services Departmental Administration

**Overall Establishment**
Unit	Number of Staff
Commissioner's Unit	68
Headquarters Unit	365
Unit 1	395
Unit 2	1,476
Unit 3	734
Unit 4	257
Total	3,295

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

As at 31 March 2002, the Department had an establishment of 3,294 permanent posts (including 25 posts for directorate officers) and 1 supernumerary directorate post in 6 Units. Of the total, 2,024 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 1,271 posts were for common / general grades officers, who provided supporting administrative, information technology and clerical services (Figure 39).

**Figure 39 Staff Establishment**
Rank	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02
Assessing Officers (Professional)	724	737	724	735
Taxation Officers	1,170	1,170	1,164	1,163
Tax Inspectors	134	134	130	126
Common/general grade officers	1,324	1,315	1,318	1,271
Total	3,352	3,356	3,336	3,295

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 1:1.2.

**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	4	1%	16	4%	20	3%
25 to below 35	89	27%	140	35%	229	31%
35 to below 45	126	38%	173	44%	299	41%
45 to below 55	106	32%	68	17%	174	24%
55 and over	8	2%	0	0%	8	1%
Total	333	100%	397	100%	730	100%

In 2001-02, 41 departmental grades officers and 20 general grades officers were promoted. 157 officers were recruited by or transferred to the Department. During the year, 179 officers left the Department.

The Department fully appreciates the importance of training and continues to provide ample training opportunities in different areas for its staff. These include in-house seminars and training courses, on-the-job training, briefings on operational needs and also courses held both locally and overseas. During 2001-02, staff training and development amounted to 20,684 man-days, representing an increase of 28% as compared with the previous year.

The Department's Training Section conducts a two-part taxation law and practice course with formal examinations for the newly appointed Assistant Assessors. Induction courses are also provided for all grades of staff upon their joining the Department.

The in-house Continuing Professional Education (CPE) Programme maintained its popularity and high attendances in the year. Nine seminars were held during the year with a total attendance of 1,898.

Besides the CPE Programme, the Department also encourages and sponsors officers to attend seminars and courses organized by academic and professional institutes. During 2001-02, 51 officers were sponsored by the Department to attend such activities.

The accelerated integration of the world economies requires our professional officers to deal with many new global issues. The Department has put emphasis on the international dimension of our tax administration.

During 2001-02, 19 professional officers attended overseas courses in Canada, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. In addition, 1 officer attended a course at Tsinghua University in Beijing and 1 officer attended a course at Zhongshan University in Zhongshan. 2 officers went on familiarization visits to Anhui Province (Hefei and Huangshan) and Hunan Province (Changsha and Zhuzhou) respectively.

In November 2001, the Department became a full member of the Study Group on Asian Tax Administration and Research (SGATAR) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. SGATAR is an organization composed of 12 tax authorities of Asian and Pacific countries and regions, providing a forum to discuss tax issues.

Furthermore, a regional tax treaty negotiation training workshop, co-organized by the Department, the Finance Bureau and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), has been scheduled to be held in Hong Kong in April 2002 with participants from other countries and regions in Asia.

Other training courses provided to our colleagues include Putonghua and English language training, the use of Chinese in official writing, report writing skills, human resources management, customer service skills and computer applications etc. Some of these courses were conducted in-house while some were organized by the Civil Service Training and Development Institute and other organizations.

Maintaining effective communication and sharing of views with staff at all levels is of utmost importance in ensuring a sense of belonging and maximizing the Department's operational efficiency in the provision of quality service.

The Committee is chaired by the Deputy Commissioner (Operations) and comprises representatives from all staff unions/ associations and staff groups in the Department. The Committee holds its meetings regularly where staff and management exchange their views on a wide range of topics of mutual concern. The major issues include recruitment, promotion, career posting, training, working environment, staff welfare and service-wide matters. The DCC meeting is an effective forum for the sharing of views within the Department.

The Committee was formed in June 1999 and provides a formal channel for clerical and secretarial grades staff in the Department to discuss matters relating to their grades with the management. Staff members of the clerical and secretarial grades have made good use of the GGCC meetings to pass on their concerns to the management as well as to the General Grades Office of the Civil Service Bureau.

With the objective of further enhancing communication between the senior management and staff, the "Meet-the-Staff Programme" was launched in 1996-97. At the meetings under the Programme, staff meet the management and share their views on issues of their concern in a less formal atmosphere.

Since its establishment, the Staff Suggestion Scheme has attracted from staff a great number of constructive improvement ideas. Many of the suggestions have been implemented with rewarding results. During 2001-02, a total of 16 suggestions were received. The ideas covered a wide range of topics and mainly focused on improvement of operational efficiency and betterment of customer service. Eight of the officers concerned were granted cash awards in recognition of their contributions and efforts.

Upon completion of the first one-year Excellent Service Programme in mid 2001, the Department has launched the second programme in November 2001. Again, there is no specific restriction on the nature of the improvement projects and proposals as creative thinking is encouraged and all proposals yielding benefits and savings to the Department and/or resulting in greater customer satisfaction are welcome. Excellent Service Teams comprising staff of different operational units have been formed under the competition programme for the implementation of a number of improvement proposals from April 2002 to March 2003.

The departmental newsletter continues to be published quarterly. With articles and contributions from staff and unit management, the newsletter disseminates information of service-related matters and recreational activities. It serves as another communication channel between management and staff.

The Inland Revenue General Staff Welfare Fund was established voluntarily by a group of staff in 1972. Funds were collected on a voluntary donation basis. Though the interest-free loans and grants released are not great amounts, the IRGSWF provides a quick source of relief to help staff with unexpected financial difficulties.

In 2001-02, 39 long-serving officers were granted awards of free travel, together with their spouses, under the Long Service Travel Award Scheme.

Throughout the year, the IRD Sports Association continued to organize a wide range of sports, social and recreational activities for colleagues, their families and friends. They included Fun Fair, Annual Dinner, Cantonese Opera Song Concert, various courses and talks, outings, sporting events, etc. All activities were well attended by colleagues.

The Association also participated in a number of charitable and sports activities held by other organizations, including We Serve, We Share - Civil Service for the Chest contests, the HKSA Charity Walk, the HKSA Football Competition and the Hong Kong Shenzhen Football, Tennis and Fishing Competitions. We are most pleased to have won several top awards.