SCS commends 100 civil servants (with photos)
5.11.2019

The Secretary for the Civil Service (SCS), Mr Joshua Law, today (November 5) commended 100 civil servants for their outstanding work performance at the SCS's Commendation Award Presentation Ceremony 2019. The Acting Chief Executive, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, also attended the ceremony to express his personal appreciation to the award recipients and share their joy. He also gave full recognition to the civil service colleagues for their hard work and contribution, and encouraged them to continue to serve the public with dedication in different posts. Addressing the ceremony, Mr Law said the awardees this year came from 39 bureaux/departments and from various professional and technical grades, disciplined services and general grades as well as Model Scale 1 grades. Their commitment to duties, their persistence in providing quality services and their spirit of pursuing excellence were highly commendable. Mr Law took this opportunity to praise civil servants for standing fast at their posts to continue to serve the public in a dedicated and professional manner during the difficult moments in the past few months. "Apart from a sense of responsibility, colleagues' commitment to duties, I believe, arises from their love for Hong Kong. They cherish Hong Kong as their home. I am deeply proud of their effort and contribution and grateful for their professional performance," he said. Mr Law also thanked the family members of civil servants. He said that with their support and understanding, civil servants can discharge their duties wholeheartedly under heavy workload and the current social situation. The SCS's Commendation Award Scheme was introduced in 2004 to commend colleagues who have achieved outstanding work performance continuously for at least five years. The Scheme has a meticulous selection process which requires nominations from Permanent Secretaries, departmental heads or heads of grades, adjudication by a selection committee and final decision on the awardees' list by the SCS. Senior Dental Officer of the Department of Health Dr So Hon-ching is one of the civil servants commended this year. With over 25 years of service with the Government, Dr So has been dedicating great efforts to promoting oral care services for the elderly. He participated in the formulation of the Outreach Dental Care Programme for the Elderly, which provides free outreach dental services for the elderly residing in residential care homes or receiving services in day care centres. The programme is benefiting about 50 000 elderly persons each year. Assistant Officer I of the Correctional Services Department (CSD) Mr Fida Hussain and Chief Customs Officer of the Customs and Excise Department Ms Lau Wai-man have also been commended. Mr Hussain said the CSD's rehabilitation work is very meaningful. In addition to day-to-day duties, Mr Hussain, who can speak several languages, assists the department by acting as an interpreter to explain custodial procedures to non-ethnic Chinese persons in custody and counselling them whenever necessary. During her career in law enforcement and customs clearance spanning 30-odd years, Ms Lau has detected many drug trafficking and smuggling cases. She currently works at Lok Ma Chau Control Point and is responsible for monitoring and ensuring the smooth operation of cargo and vehicle clearance. Her rich front-line experience made her understand that while enforcing the law in a professional manner, Customs officers should treat the public with empathy and spend more time on communication and explanation so as to avoid unnecessary misunderstanding and conflicts. Senior Field Assistant Mr Shek Shui-wa, with over 34 years of service with the Government, has been tasked with duties related to the conservation of native plants since joining the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department. Mr Shek has earlier collected from the field a seedling of the rare and precious Westland's birthwort for conservation outside its habitat. With his efforts and persistence, seeds eventually germinated and propagated successfully. He will return the grown plants to nature to assist in the propagation of this rare plant in Hong Kong. Senior Waterworks Inspector Mr Wong Yiu-wai has served in different positions in the Water Supplies Department during his 36 years of service and is currently attached to the Water Loss Management Section. With identifying leaking underground water mains in Hong Kong and Islands Region as his main duty, he has to study a lot of data collected from the water mains network every day, and at times carries out leak detection on-site late at night before determining follow-up actions so as to safeguard precious water resources.