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Following is a question by the Hon Ma Lik and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (June 13):
Question:
The Finance Committee (FC) of this Council approved on July 2, 2004 the Administration's funding proposal for making ex-gratia payments to live poultry retailers who surrender their tenancies of public markets under the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department or fresh provision shop licences with endorsement to sell live poultry, and for providing one-off grants to live poultry retail workers (affected workers) so as to alleviate the impact on them as a result of the retailers concerned ceasing operation. Recently, I have received requests for assistance from some of these affected workers who pointed out that their applications for grants had been rejected on the grounds that they had not been directly employed by the retailers concerned. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the up-to-date number of affected workers to whom grants have been awarded, the total amount of money disbursed and its percentage in the relevant commitment, and the number of applications rejected on the grounds mentioned above;
(b) as the relevant papers submitted to FC (FCR(2004-05)25 and FCR(2005-06)28) did not stipulate that affected workers not directly employed by the retailers concerned were ineligible for the grants, of the reasons for rejecting their applications and the total amount of money involved; and whether it will reconsider such applications; and
(c) whether it has assessed if the Government should submit a supplementary paper to FC to seek its approval for not following the relevant FC papers and introducing an additional condition in vetting applications; if it has and the assessment outcome is in the negative, of the justifications for that?
Reply:
Madam President:
(a) The Finance Committee (FC) of the Legislative Council approved funding in July 2004 for:
(i) making ex-gratia payment to live poultry retailers "who chose to surrender their fresh provision shop licences with endorsement to sell live poultry or public market tenancies";
(ii) providing retraining courses and one-off grants to assist local live poultry retail workers who lost their jobs as a result of their employers ceasing operation by surrendering their licences or tenancies; and
(iii) making loans on an unsecured basis to live poultry retailers holding fresh provision shop licences with endorsement to sell live poultry who wished to continue operating to upgrade their facilities to enhance their sanitary and hygiene conditions.
The Voluntary Surrender Scheme for Live Poultry Retailers (the Scheme) began accepting applications from live poultry retailers in mid July 2004. In July 2005, the FC approved the extension of the Scheme to cover the live poultry trade (including farmers, wholesalers and related transporters), granting ex-gratia payment to help them cease operation or switch to other businesses. Under the new Scheme, a one-off grant of $18,000 was offered to each of the local live poultry farm, wholesale and transport workers who lost their jobs as a result of their employers ceasing operation under the Scheme. The FC also approved the extension of the application period to August 2006 for surrender of licences by live poultry retailers and application for one-off grant by workers they employed, so as to tally with the application deadline for other workers under the Scheme. The Scheme was closed in August 2006. Of the 253 live poultry retail workers that had applied for one-off grants, 200 applications were approved with a total grant of $3,256,000 disbursed. The disbursement accounted for about 4% of the commitment of $83,028,000 for the Scheme. Of the 53 unsuccessful applications, 15 cases were rejected because the applicants were not employed by the licensees or tenants who joined the Scheme. Other applications were rejected because the applicants were ineligible, failed to furnish the relevant supporting documents or lost their jobs not as a result of their employers ceasing operation under the Scheme.
(b) & (c) The Administration had stipulated clearly in the papers submitted to the FC that the financial assistance/one-off grants aimed to assist live poultry retail workers who became unemployed when their employers ceased their operations under the Scheme. Therefore, the financial assistance/one-off grants would only be granted to workers employed by eligible live poultry retail trade licensees and market stall tenants who had joined the Scheme and surrendered their licences/tenancies. When processing and approving all the applications for financial assistance/one-off grants, the Administration followed the criteria set by the FC when approving the funding commitment for the Scheme. There is no question of the Administration not following the criteria in the relevant FC papers or imposing any additional condition on its own when vetting the applications.
Ends/Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Issued at HKT 13:01
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