IT Contract Staff Service Meets Government IT needs at Competitive Market Rates
02 - 12 - 2003

In response to media reports on the recruitment of contract Information Technology (IT) professional staff through personnel consultancy firms (contractors), a spokesman for the Information Technology Services Department (ITSD) said the arrangement (referred as the T20 Contract) has the merits of providing a competitive and reliable source of supply of IT staff for government departments that is quick in response to their demand, flexible to use and simple to administer.

"The arrangement allows government departments to adjust their IT manpower levels more dynamically in response to the peaks and troughs of demand, while containing the growth of the civil service. It also significantly reduces the administration costs incurred by individual departments in the recruitment and retention of IT staff who are needed on a temporary basis", the spokesman said.

Under the T20 arrangement, it takes about four weeks for a department to get the contract staff in place from the time a service request is made to the contractor. "This compares favourably to in-house recruitment which could take up to a few months," the spokesman added.

Furthermore, the T20 contract has a built-in review mechanism which is capable of reflecting changes in the IT manpower situation. The mechanism provides for annual and periodic adjustments to be made to the contract rates. Since the T20 contract commenced on 1 June 2002, the contract rates have been adjusted downward three times by a total of around 10%, as compared to the 3.5% reduction in the Consumer Price Index (B) during the same period.

Indeed, the current rates under the T20 contract are 18% lower than that under the former (T19) contract.

With regard to the apparent disparity between the salaries paid to the staff employed by the contractors and the"market rates", the spokesman noted that the contractors are required to provide a total service package which covers, among other things, MPF contribution, insurance and all kinds of fringe benefits for the contract staff such as pay for sick leave and vacation leave. In other words, the rates payable to the contractors are not directly comparable to the market rates for individuals' salaries.

"Bearing in mind the keen competition in the IT industry in recent years, we believe that the salaries paid by the contractors to individual staff have already reflected the prevailing market supply and demand of IT personnel, including the changes in the salary levels and administrative costs," the spokesman said.

"The T20 Contract is non-exclusive. Government departments are free to engage IT contract staff through other means such as non-civil service contract (NCSC) arrangements, based on their individual needs."

The T20 contract will expire at the end of 2004. A review will be conducted around the second quarter of 2004 to determine the future contract arrangements.

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