Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On said yesterday that the government will “thoroughly” review possible amendments to its rules and system on disciplinary procedures for public servants.
Chui made the remarks when answering lawmaker-cum-unionist Jose Maria Pereira Coutinho’s question in a Q&A session in the legislature’s hemicycle yesterday.
Coutinho heads the Macau Civil Servants Association (ATFPM).
Coutinho said that the government appeared to have imposed an excessively heavy penalty on the former director of the Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG), Fong Soi Kun – suspending his pension payment for four years, for his alleged failure to fulfil his duties properly over the hoisting of storm warning signals when Super Typhoon Hato pummelled Macau last year.
Coutinho said the Hato disaster response controversy was also due to the failure by some other senior officials in various other fields – such as emergency response, disaster relief and rescue – to fulfil their duties properly, apart from Fong’s handling of the typhoon’s warning signals. He said the senior officials in other fields should also be held accountable for the Hato catastrophe, adding that it was unreasonable for Fong to take full blame and full responsibility.
According to a report by the Portugueselanguage radio channel of governmentowned broadcaster TDM on Sunday, Fong has decided to appeal to the Court of Second Instance (TSI) against the government’s decision’s to “dismiss” him which was announced last week.
The government announced last Wednesday that Chui had decided to punish Fong by suspending the payment of his pension for four years for his failure to fulfil his duties properly over the handling of Hato’s warning signals.
During a special press conference about the government’s typhoon response measures last Thursday, Chui said that he could not elaborate on Fong’s case as the ex-weather chief had the right to file an administrative or judicial appeal against his decision.
In his reply to Coutinho’s question yesterday, Chui said he was “sorry” that he could not elaborate on Fong’s case as it was undergoing judicial procedures.
Chui said that the government had recently received many opinions raised by various segments of civil society, including senior public servants and legal professionals, about possible amendments to the city’s laws and rules on public servants.
According to Chui, most of the opinions put forward expressed the view that while the law regulating the performance of public servants in leadership positions enacted in 2009 clearly specifies the duties and responsibilities of such officials, it fails to mention the respective disciplinary rules for those who violate their duties and responsibilities.
The 2009 law on public servants in leadership positions covers directors and deputy directors of government bureaus, as well as department chiefs, division chiefs and section chiefs under a bureau, apart from similarly ranked officials from entities other than bureaus.
According to Chui, the situation means that when officials allegedly violate rules listed in the 2009 law, the government can only launch disciplinary procedures against them and punish them in line with the Macau Public Administration Staff Statute which is applicable to all public servants.
The government said last Wednesday that its disciplinary procedures against Fong and the bureau’s former vice-director, Florence Leong Ka Cheng, for their alleged failure to fulfil their duties properly over the handling of Hato’s warning signals had been completed. The outcome of the disciplinary procedures determined that the duo should be held accountable for their conduct.
Leong submitted her resignation as the bureau’s vice-director in February, effective from March 1, when she returned to her original post as a senior public servant at the weather station, which has a director and a vice-director.
The government said last Wednesday that Chui had therefore decided to “dismiss” Fong and suspend Leong for 130 days. As the ex-weather bureau chief had already retired from the civil service, Fong’s “dismissal” led to the suspension of his pension payments for four years, based on Article 306 of the Macau Public Administration Staff Statute.
According to the statute promulgated in the late 1980s, “dismissal” is the heaviest punishment against public servants who have violated disciplinary rules, followed by “forced retirement”, suspension, imposition of fines, and the issuing of warning letters.
The government said last Wednesday that the four-year suspension of Fong’s pension payment was the heaviest punishment that could be imposed on him, based on the statute.
Chui said yesterday that he had ordered Secretary for Administration and Justice Sonia Chan Hoi Fan to set up a special working group to “thoroughly” review the city’s laws and regulations on public servants, particularly with the aim of improving the mechanism for disciplinary procedures and the government’s accountability system for leadership-level public servants.
Chan attended yesterday’s question-and-answer session.
The day after Hato pummelled Macau on August 23 and killed 10, Chui accepted Fong’s abrupt resignation over the latter’s widely criticised handling of Hato’s warning signals. Fong submitted his resignation for “personal reasons”. Fong also applied to retire when he handed Chui his resignation.
Hato was Macau’s most severe typhoon in over six decades.
The weather bureau said in January that Fong finally retired on November 27, three months after he had applied to retire.
In November, Chui initiated disciplinary procedures against Fong and Leong for their alleged failure to fulfil their duties properly over the hoisting of typhoon warning signals when Hato hit Macau, after a special commission tasked with probing whether any government entities or officials were at fault in their response to Hato submitted its investigative report to Chui.
During the period between Fong’s resignation as the bureau’s director and his retirement in late November, he worked for the weather station as a senior public servant.
Jorge Neto Valente, who heads the Macau Lawyers Association (AAM), last week slammed Fong’s “unjust” and “disproportional” punishment by the government.
Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On addresses yesterday’s Q&A session in the legislature’s hemicycle. Photo: GCS
