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LegCo to Debate Opposing Collusion between Business and the Government and Transfer of Benefits

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The following is issued on behalf of the Legislative Council Secretariat:

The Legislative Council will hold a meeting this Wednesday (February 2) at 2.30pm in the Chamber of the Legislative Council Building. During the meeting, Members will debate a motion on opposing collusion between business and the Government and transfer of benefits.

The motion, to be proposed by Hon Emily LAU, says: "That, as the Chief Executive has stated in his 2005 Policy Address that while ensuring the efficiency of Hong Kong's free market and its capacity to create wealth, the Administration also seeks to properly balance the interests of different social strata and sectors, and is resolutely against 'collusion between business and the Government' and will strictly enforce the monitoring systems to eliminate any 'transfer of benefits', this Council urges the Administration to:

(a)clearly define what constitutes 'collusion between business and the Government' and 'transfer of benefits', and elaborate on how the monitoring systems will operate;

(b)review the existing political system and the procedure for allocating resources, and plug the loopholes;

(c)open up the mechanism for nominating members to advisory and statutory bodies and enhance its transparency, strictly enforce the rules whereby a person should not serve as a member on more than six boards/committees and should not serve more than six years in any board/committee as well as the principle of 'making appointments on the basis of merits', listen widely to the views of different sectors of the community, and avoid 'cronyism' and 'transfer of benefits'; and

(d)implement the election of the Chief Executive and all Members of the Legislative Council by universal suffrage in 2007 and 2008 respectively to prevent the small-circle electoral system from continuing to give rise to problems of 'collusion between business and the Government' and 'transfer of benefits'".

Hon Jeffrey LAM Kin-fung will move an amendment to Hon Emily LAU's motion.

Members will also debate a motion on monitoring the post-retirement employment of the Chief Executive, principal officials under the accountability system and civil servants at directorate level with private-sector organisations.

The motion, to be moved by Hon Cheung Man-kwong, states: "That, since the approval granted to Ms Elaine Chung Lai-kwok, former Deputy Director of Housing, for her post-retirement employment with a private-sector organization has aroused severe criticisms from the community and called into question the existence of a conflict of interest between her present job and her previous service in the Government, in order to restore the public's confidence in the retirement system of senior officials, this Council urges the Government to immediately amend, monitor the implementation of and strictly enforce the policies and measures governing the post-retirement employment of civil servants with private-sector organizations, which should include:

(a)extending the present period of six months to two years the sanitization period for officers retiring at the rank of Administrative Officer Staff Grade A1 or above, and to one year for other directorate officers;

(b)prohibiting directorate officers from taking up employment with private-sector organisations during their pre-retirement leave to guard against double pay;

(c)expanding the regulation of business or employment locations to cover Mainland China and the Macao Special Administrative Region, in addition to Hong Kong;

(d)identifying loopholes in the work of the Advisory Committee on Post-retirement Employment to prevent the Committee from becoming a rubber stamp which approves applications indiscriminately;

(e)making public information on the approvals granted by the Government for civil servants at directorate level to take up post-retirement employment with private-sector organizations; and

(f)closely monitoring the changes in the nature of post-retirement employment taken up by directorate officers with private-sector organizations after such approvals have been granted so as to ensure that there is no conflict of interest between their post-retirement employment and their previous service in the Government; furthermore, this Council also calls upon Mr Joseph Wong Wing-ping, Secretary for the Civil Service, to apologize for the mishandling of the incident of Ms Elaine Chung Lai-kok, and urges the Administration to amend the relevant policies by exercising appropriate and forceful regulation over the post-departure or post-retirement employment of the Chief Executive and the principal officials under the accountability system with private-sector organisations, so as to achieve the policy direction of 'resolutely against collusion between business and the Government to eliminate any transfer of benefits' announced in the Chief Executive's 2005 Policy Address, thereby ensuring that upon the departure of the Chief Executive, principal officials and directorate officers, they do not enter into any business or take up any employment which may constitute a conflict of interest with their previous service in the Government or adversely affect the image of the Government."

Hon Tam Yiu-chung will move an amendment to Hon Cheung Man-kwong's motion.

Hon Miriam Lau will move a resolution under the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance to extend the period for amending the Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Pollution by Sewage) Regulation and the Merchant Shipping (Prevention and Control of Pollution) (Fees) Regulation, which were laid on the table of the Legislative Council on January 19, 2005, to the meeting of March 9, 2005.

Meanwhile, the Secretary for Economic Development and Labour will move two resolutions under the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance to amend the Employees' Compensation Ordinance (Amendment of Second Schedule) Order 2004 and the Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance (Amendment of Schedule 2) Order 2004, which were laid on the table of the Legislative Council on December 15, 2004.

The Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology will also move a resolution under the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance to amend the Telecommunications (Method for Determining Spectrum Utilization Fees) (Third Generation Mobile Services) (Amendment) Regulation 2004 and the Telecommunications (Level of Spectrum Utilization Fees) (Second Generation Mobile Services) Regulation, which were laid on the table of the Legislative Council on December 15, 2004.

During the meeting, Members will also ask the Administration 20 questions on various policy areas, five of which require oral replies.

The agenda of the above meeting can be obtained via the Legislative Council InfoFax Service (Tel: 2869 9568) or the Legislative Council web site (http://www.legco.gov.hk).

Members of the public are welcome to observe the proceedings of the meeting from the public galleries of the Legislative Council Chamber. They may reserve seats by calling 2869 9399 during office hours. Seats will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.

Ends/Monday, January 31, 2005

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