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Following is a question by Hon Leung Kwok-hung and a written reply by the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Tsang Tak-sing, in the Legislative Council today (April 16):
Question:
The Home Affairs Department (HAD) has established the "Enhancing Self-Reliance Through District Partnership Programme" (the ESR Programme) since 2006 to provide seed grants for eligible non-profit-making organisations to set up social enterprises, so as to promote sustainable poverty alleviation efforts at the district level. Last month, a host of a local web radio programme uncovered that the community services foundation of the Kowloon Federation of Associations (the Federation) had set up under the aforesaid Programme the Better Community of Loving Care Supermarket (the Supermarket) in Sham Shui Po, and given out cash coupons of the Supermarket at the offices of designated District Council (DC) members and premises of residents' associations, in order to attract residents to join the Federation. Residents applying for membership of the Federation are required to provide a lot of personal data, and may only order goods from the Supermarket through the relevant DC members' offices or local organisations. In addition, some members of the public have pointed out that the food served in the "MOS Cafe", which was set up by the Ma On Shan Promotion of Livelihood and Recreation Association under the aforesaid Programme, is expensive and its quality is far from satisfactory. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the total number of applications received under the ESR Programme in the past five years, and the details of such applications, including (i) the date of application, (ii) the name of the applicant organisation, (iii) the trade to which the project belongs, and (iv) the cumulative total amount of grants applied for (set out in table form);
(2) of the total number of applications approved under the ESR Programme in the past five years, and the details of such applications, including (i) the date of approval, (ii) the name of the applicant organisation, (iii) the trade to which the project belongs, and (iv) the cumulative total amount of grants approved (set out in table form);
(3) of the amount of grants provided annually under the ESR Programme for the aforesaid Supermarket project; whether it has investigated if the Federation has used its own funds to purchase cash coupons of the Supermarket given out to residents; if the investigation result is in the negative, of the respective numbers of Supermarket cash coupons that the Federation intends to give or has given out and the amount of money involved, and whether such a practice has violated the terms of the ESR Programme agreement; if the investigation result is in the affirmative, whether the authorities will review why grants have been provided for the Federation under the ESR Programme given that the Federation has the financial means to purchase a large quantity of cash coupons from the Supermarket; whether it will require the Federation to give out the Supermarket cash coupons to residents at other premises in the district and through more channels; if it has not carried out such an investigation, whether it has assessed if the authorities have been negligent in monitoring the operation of the project;
(4) whether it has investigated if the Federation has made use of the Supermarket to promote the Federation and the DC members concerned as well as to collect personal data of residents, in requiring the residents to register their personal data through designated DC members' offices and residents' associations to become members of the Federation before they can order goods from the Supermarket, and whether such a practice has violated the terms of the ESR Programme agreement; if it has not carried out such an investigation, whether it has assessed if the authorities have failed to monitor the Programme properly;
(5) whether it has assessed if the aforesaid practice of collecting personal data (i) is an excessive collection of personal data and (ii) has violated the requirements under the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap. 486); whether the authorities have consulted the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data on the aforesaid incident; if they have, of the views of the Commissioner;
(6) of the annual amounts of grants provided under the ESR Programme for the MOS Cafe project;
(7) whether it has assessed if MOS Cafe's lunch and dinner prices are reasonable and in line with the consumption patterns of residents of the district, as well as whether its catering services are up to the standards required by the residents; if it has assessed, of the assessment result for the past six months and the criteria for the assessment; if not, the reasons for that;
(8) whether the funded organisations concerned have to shoulder any responsibility in the event that the projects under the ESR Programme are terminated within the funding period or shortly after the end of such a period; if so, of the responsibilities involved; if not, how the authorities can ensure the proper use of public funds; and
(9) whether HAD has taken into account the political background of the applicant organisations in approving applications under the ESR Programme; if it has, of the details; whether it has received any complaint from applicant organisations about their applications being rejected due to their political background; if so, of the details?
Reply:
President,
The Enhancing Self-Reliance Through District Partnership Programme (ESR Programme) has been launched by the Home Affairs Department since 2006 to provide seed grants to eligible non-profit-making organisations for setting up social enterprises (SEs). It has helped promote the development of SEs in Hong Kong since its launch. In the past five years, a total of 349 applications were received. The types of business and the amount of grants applied for in these applications are as follows:
Type of Business Number of Total Amount of
Applications Grants Applied For
($ million)
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Catering 73 141
Retail 57 85
Beauty care, 49 90
massage and
personal service
Arts, performance 47 88
and workshop
Business support 41 86
service
Horticulture 21 49
and eco-tourism
Recycling and 19 34
thrift store
Household service 8 10
(including
renovation)
Others 34 72
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Total 349 655
Details of the SE projects approved by the ESR Programme in the past five years are at Annex.
All applications of the ESR Programme are assessed by the ESR Advisory Committee (ESRAC). The ESRAC mainly comprises non-official members from the business, professional and academic sectors. In vetting the applications, the ESRAC considers the nature, the operation model and the viability of the proposed business, the implementation methodology and the budget of the project, etc. In particular, whether the project can meet the objectives of the ESR Programme, that is, to create job opportunities for the socially disadvantaged for enhancing self-reliance, and to become self-financing and sustainable after the funding period. The ESRAC does not take other unrelated factors into consideration.
The funded SEs can use the grants approved under the ESR Programme to cover the capital and operating costs of the SEs. The grantees are required to keep the ESR Secretariat informed of the position of the approved projects including the use of the grant, the employment of socially disadvantaged, the financial condition, etc through regular progress reports. Should there be deviation from the original projections, the grantee should account for the discrepancies in the progress reports for the ESR Secretariat¡¦s consideration and actions deemed appropriate. That said, being operating in form of a business, the SEs like commercial enterprises, deploy appropriate marketing strategies, like pricing, sales of cash coupons to groups and so forth, at their discretion having regard to factors such as the business nature, the target clienteles, and the operating costs.
As regards the two SE projects mentioned in the question, the ESR Programme approved a grant of $2.5 million to the Ma On Shan Promotion of Livelihood and Recreation Association in 2010 to launch a SE project of setting up a cafeteria in order to create employment opportunities and to enhance self-reliance of the socially disadvantaged. The approved grant was to cover the costs involved in the renovation work and procurement of equipment for setting up the cafeteria. The Kowloon Federation of Association (Community Services) Foundation Limited was approved a grant of $2.2 million in 2012 to set up a SE in form of a supermarket so as to provide job opportunities and on-the-job training to the unemployed and low-skilled workers. The approved grant was for the renovation work, equipment, staff salaries, rental expenses and other operating expenses of the supermarket. According to the information including financial reports submitted by the two SEs, they are running satisfactorily and have spent the disbursed grants solely for the expenditure items approved for the projects as stated in the funding agreements and with no indication of violation of the funding requirements. As informed by the supermarket SE, apart from the retail shop, thanks to the support of some organisations, sales have been made through group orders at discounted price. The SE also sells cash coupons but at their nominal face value without discount and has not handed out any cash coupons in free. It welcomes group orders and purchase of cash coupons by organisations.
The SEs under the ESR Programme are required to comply with the laws of Hong Kong. Anyone who suspects that a SE has breached the requirements set out in the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap. 486) may make enquiry or launch a complaint to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data directly.
Besides, in case a SE under the ESR Programme operates at a deficit higher than anticipated, the grantee itself shall be responsible for it. Should a SE ceases operation during the funding period, the Government can request the grantee to repay to the Government all or any part of the grant disbursed forthwith according to the funding agreement. Interest can be charged in the event of breach of agreement.
Ends/Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Issued at HKT 16:10
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