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The following is issued on behalf of the Legislative Council Secretariat:
Chairman of the Finance Committee (FC) of the Legislative Council (LegCo), Ms Emily Lau, said that the examination of the two financial proposals in relation to the re-organization of the Government Secretariat was the most controversial issue handled by the FC during the 2011-2012 legislative session.
Speaking at the FC Chairman and Deputy Chairman's end-of-session press conference today (July 17), Ms Lau pointed out that a total of 20 meetings have been held since mid-June this year to examine the two financial proposals concerning the re-organization of the Government Secretariat. During the course of the examination, a total of 982 motions were proposed by some of the members under paragraph 37A of the FC Procedure, of which 237 had already been dealt with.
"The Government has finally decided in early July to rearrange the order of consideration of the financial proposals by placing the items relating to the re-organization of the Government Secretariat after those livelihood items. I hope the Government has indeed learnt a lesson and will fully consult the LegCo and make necessary refinements to Government policies before submitting the proposals to the FC for scrutiny," Ms Lau said.
Deputy Chairman of the FC, Professor Patrick Lau, echoed that the heated debate on the issue reflected that the Government has failed to get an accurate grasp of public sentiment. He concurred that the Government should widely consult the LegCo before introducing any controversial policy.
During the session, the FC examined and approved 70 financial proposal items with an amount of $374 billion. A total of 49 meetings, including seven special meetings for examination of the Estimates of Expenditure 2012-2013, were held.
Over the past year, the FC examined and approved various funding proposals related to the relief measures announced in the Government's Budget, such as providing two months' rent for tenants living in public housing, an extra one-month allowance to recipients of comprehensive social security assistance, old age allowance and disability allowance, and electricity charges subsidy for eligible residential accounts. The total cost of these proposals amounted to $8.5 billion.
On public works and infrastructure projects, the total cost of these projects approved by the FC this year amounted to some $182.09 billion. Major projects examined and approved during the session included Shatin to Central Link - construction of non-railway, Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Hong Kong Link Road, Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities - Reclamation and Superstructures, and Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point and associated works.
FC also approved a number of funding proposals related to livelihood issues, environmental protection, and support measures to enterprises, including $290 million for public transport fare concession scheme for the elderly and eligible persons with disabilities; $10 billion for a grant to support the Samaritan Fund; $100 billion to provide loan guarantees under SME Financing Guarantee Scheme; $1 billion for the setting up of a dedicated fund to provide funding support to assist Hong Kong enterprises in exploring and developing the Mainland market through developing brands, upgrading and restructuring their operations and promoting domestic sales in the Mainland; $180 million for funding the full cost of procuring 36 electric buses and related charging facilities for trial by the franchised bus companies in Hong Kong; $150 million for providing a subsidy to assist vehicle owners to replace the catalytic converters and oxygen sensors of their taxis and light buses that are fuelled by petrol or liquefied petroleum gas; $5 billion for injection into the Research Endowment Fund for enhancing the research capacity of institutions in the higher education sector; and $1,415 million for the setting up of a Health and Medical Research Fund.
In summing up, Ms Lau said she has all along discharged her duty as the Chairman of the FC in a fair and impartial manner over the past seven years. She believed that whether the provisions in the FC Procedure on moving motions by members should be reviewed will be dealt with in the next FC term.
Ends/Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Issued at HKT 19:51
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