Hong Kong authorities have penalised an Education Bureau staff member over a Primary One admission allocation blunder after human error was found to be involved, with the officer to be denied a pay rise and transferred to other roles.

The government on Friday revealed the results of its investigation into the incident on June 2 when parents received SMS notifications about their children’s primary school allocations, a day before the official announcement.

The investigation found that the officer had made an operational error while setting up the notification procedure in the morning.

The error resulted in the messages containing incorrect years and registration dates, as well as being sent to parents one day earlier than scheduled.

But the government said the incident had not affected the allocation results.

“Having regard to the nature of the incident, the negligence of the staff member concerned, the inconvenience caused to parents, the public attention and the impact on the government’s reputation, the Education Bureau has decided to take disciplinary follow-up action against the staff member concerned,” it said.

“Deficiencies in the performance of the relevant duties will be reflected in the staff member’s appraisal and an increment will not be granted. The staff member will also be transferred to perform other duties.”