CHAPTER 6 Hong Kong Police Force Management of leave in the ...

Vacation leaveAudit examination of Formation A3.6 Audit examination of two formations. Audit selected two police formations(Formations A and B), in respect of which the IAD found many cases of unrecorded leave,to examine whether management had taken effective actions to address the problems found.The audit findings, which revealed areas for improvement, are discussed in paragraphs 3.7to 3.29.General information about Formation A3.7 Formation A is commanded by a Superintendent, who reports to the DistrictCommander. Formation A’s General Registry, headed by a Clerical Officer, is responsiblefor leave administration. The leave recording officer is a Clerical Assistant. As at31 March 2010, Formation A had a strength of 268 staff, comprising 254 disciplined staffand 14 civilian staff. It had no NCSC staff.Internal audits of leave records3.8 Internal audit procedures. During 2007 to 2009, the IAD conducted twointernal audits of Formation A, as follows:(a)(b)2007 internal audit. This covered an auditing period of 17 months, fromMarch 2006 to July 2007. The IAD selected the months of April 2006 andFebruary 2007 for checking of leave records; and2009 internal audit. This covered an auditing period of 16 months, fromAugust 2007 to November 2008. The IAD selected the months ofDecember 2007 and September 2008 for checking of leave records.3.9 2007 internal audit findings. The 2007 internal audit of Formation A founddiscrepancies between the LRS and DSS records (see para. 2.6). In respect of 10 occasions(involving 15 days of vacation leave taken by 10 officers) shown in the DSS duty lists, theleave was not recorded in the LRS (Note 14). In October 2007, the IAD recommended thatthe District Commander should account for the discrepancies and take necessaryrectification actions.Note 14: Each of the 10 officers had one occasion of unrecorded vacation leave of one to threedays. The internal audit report did not disclose the number of vacation leave caseswhich had been sample checked.— 15 —