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Following is a question by the Hon Audrey Eu and a written reply by the Secretary for Home Affairs, Dr Patrick Ho, in the Legislative Council today (May 23):
Question:
Will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the purposes of and criteria for appointing government officials to be members of the governance structure of public bodies, and list in the table below the names of the public bodies to which government officials have been appointed as members of their governance structures in the past three years, as well as the titles and names of such government officials:
Names of Post titles and names of
public bodies government officials
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(b) of the number of meetings held by the governance structure of each of the above public bodies in the past three years, the attendance of the above government officials at such meetings and their attendance rates, as well as the post titles and names of those government officials whose attendance rates were below 60%, broken down by public bodies; and
(c) whether it has set up any mechanism to prescribe the minimum attendance rate for the government officials concerned at the above meetings; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) & (b) Government officials appointed to be members of the governance structure of public bodies are usually from bureaux or departments relevant to the work of the bodies concerned. Their roles are in general to offer advice from the perspectives of Government's policy in relevant areas to enable the bodies concerned to give due regard to the policy of the Government and the wide public interests in the pursuit of their organisational goals. Names of public bodies with government officials serving as members of their governance structure and details of attendance of the relevant officials at meetings of these bodies for the past three years are set out at Annex.
(c) At present, the public bodies listed in Annex have not set any specific requirement with regard to the attendance rate of their members (including official members). In general, the relevant government officials will, having regard to the agenda of the meeting, decide whether his/her attendance to the meetings is necessary. For meetings with relevant items, they will attend the meetings themselves as far as possible; and, depending on the actual circumstances of the case, assign suitable representatives to attend the meetings if they are unable to attend because of other official commitments. In such cases, the representatives will brief the government officials concerned on matters discussed and issues to be followed up after the meetings. As arrangements regarding attendance of members (including official members) at meetings of public bodies is a matter concerning the operation of the respective bodies, whether specific requirements should be made on the attendance rate of members (including official members) shall be decided by the bodies concerned, having regard to their actual situation.
Ends/Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Issued at HKT 16:31
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