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Following is a question by Hon Emily Lau and a written reply by the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Tsang Tak-sing, in the Legislative Council today (April 16):
Question:
In January this year, the Basic Law Promotion Steering Committee invited all the District Councils (DCs) to organise in their districts Basic Law promotional activities in relation to constitutional developments, and such activities have to be completed by early May this year. In this respect, the Home Affairs Bureau has made an allocation up to $250,000 to each DC for organising such activities. It has been reported that some committees/working groups of the DCs have vetted and approved the funding applications for the aforesaid project and other projects merely by conducting closed meetings or by circulation of papers, and that 14 of the 18 DCs have not uploaded all their meeting minutes and papers circulated in 2013 onto their DC web sites, making it difficult for the public to monitor the operations of these DCs. In this connection, will the Executive Authorities inform this Council whether it knows:
(1) the ways by which each DC vetted and approved the funding applications for the aforesaid Basic Law promotional activities, as well as the organisers/co-organisers, estimated expenditure and other details of such activities (set out according to the table below);
DC Ways of Name(s) of Estimated Other
vetting organiser(s)/ expenditure details
and co-organiser(s) of the of the
approving of the activities activities
funding activities
applications
(open meetings/
closed meetings/
circulation of
papers)
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-- -------- ------------ ---------- ---------
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(2) the reasons why some DCs have not uploaded all the papers for DC meetings onto their web sites, and the measures taken to increase the percentage of documents of DCs uploaded onto the relevant web sites; and
(3) the committees/working groups of the DCs which vet and approve funding applications at closed meetings, and the reasons why such committees/working groups have not made public their meeting minutes and papers; whether it will urge the DCs concerned to increase the transparency of their work, including requesting them to open up the relevant meetings to enable the public and the media to monitor them?
Reply:
President,
(1) The ways by which each District Council (DC) has vetted and approved the funding applications for Basic Law promotional activities, as well as the organisers/co-organisers, estimated expenditure and other details of such activities are set out at the Annex.
(2) DCs are provided with secretariat support from respective District Offices. In general, DC Secretariats (Secretariats) will upload documents of full DC and committee meetings, including agendas, discussion papers and minutes of the meetings etc., onto their respective DC websites for public access, except for matters discussed at closed-door meetings (including but not limited to those concerning internal administration as well as sensitive information involving tenders and quotations etc.).
The respective Secretariats will work with DCs to enhance services regarding the arrangements for uploading DC documents onto their websites. Where manpower resources permit, the Secretariats will upload the relevant circulation papers and written and supplementary information of DCs and committees onto their websites as soon as possible. Information of working groups will also be uploaded onto the respective websites in a progressive manner in due course.
(3) There are a total of 104 committees and 253 working groups under the 18 DCs. According to the Secretariats, since the commencement of the current DC term (i.e. January 1, 2012), there are only three committees and 16 working groups that have discussed matters in relation to the vetting and approval of funding applications at closed-door meetings.
(a) The three committees which have vetted and approved funding applications at closed-door meetings are as follows:
(i) Funding and Finance Committee of Wan Chai DC;
(ii) Finance and Administration Committee of Kwun Tong DC; and
(iii) Administration and Finance Committee of Kwai Tsing DC.
(b) The 16 working groups which have vetted and approved funding applications at closed-door meetings are as follows:
(i) Working Group on Civic Education under Culture, Leisure and Social Affairs Committee of Central and Western DC (one closed-door meeting only);
(ii) Vetting Sub-committee under Community Affairs and Tourism Development Committee of Southern DC;
(iii) District Council In-house Working Group of Wan Chai DC (in respect of applications for funding of Women's Commission in total of $53,000); and
(iv) thirteen of the working groups under Kwai Tsing DC, including the Vetting Working Group.
Members of the public may approach the respective DC Secretariats for access to other documents. The Secretariats will provide appropriate assistance as far as practicable.
We have invited the DCs concerned to look into the suggestion of making the relevant meetings and papers of the meetings public. The Secretariats will take appropriate follow-up action according to the respective DCs' decisions.
Ends/Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Issued at HKT 18:12
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