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A Bill to transfer all existing property, rights, liabilities, functions and powers of the Provisional Municipal Councils (PMCs) to the Government and other statutory bodies will be gazetted tomorrow (Friday).

The Provision of Municipal Services (Reorganisation) Bill proposes to repeal the Provisional Urban Council Ordinance (Cap 101) and the Provisional Regional Council Ordinance (Cap 385) and contains other legislative amendments to transfer the functions to appropriate government agencies, a spokesman for the Constitutional Affairs Bureau said today (Thursday).

The spokesman said : "The Government's decision to dissolve the PMCs after the terms of office of the incumbent members expire on December 31, 1999 and to set up a new structure for the delivery of municipal services was made after extensive public consultation and debate on the review of district organisations during 1998."

"We believe the new structure will provide strong and clear leadership in the co-ordination and direction on food safety and environmental hygiene matters, facilitate co-ordination over environmental issues, strengthen professional and community input, and facilitate the formulation and implementation of overall arts and sports policies."

The Bill will amend 60 Ordinances and about 100 subsidiary legislation. The amendments are voluminous but most of them are of a technical nature resulting from the transfer of authority from the PMCs to the Government or designated officers and the renaming of bylaws as regulations.

Some amendments are to reconcile the existing differences in the Bylaws of the PMCs with a view to implementing consistent territory-wide policies.

In addition, the Bill provides for the deletion of certain provisions in the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance (Cap 132) and its subsidiary legislation which are either obsolete or already covered by other legislation. They include provisions on control of laundries and dry cleaning establishments, labourers' lines, overcrowding and boarding houses.

Other main provisions of the Bill are as follow:

* transitional and savings provisions to preserve third party contractual rights, existing fees and charges, the liability of offences committed under a repealed enactment and the validity of licences and permits issued by the PMCs;

* formation of a new Liquor Licensing Board in place of the two liquor licensing boards of the PMCs responsible for liquor licensing;

* formation of a Licensing Appeals Board in place of the review committees of the PMCs as a first tier appeal mechanism to hear appeals from decisions of the licensing authority under the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance;

* formation of a Municipal Services Appeals Board in place of the existing Urban Services Appeals Board and Regional Services Appeals Board to hear appeals from the decisions of the Licensing Appeals Board and certain decisions made under the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance (Cap 132), Places of Public Entertainment Ordinance (Cap 172) and Dutiable Commodities (Liquor Licensing) Regulations (Cap 109, subsidiary legislation). The Chairman and Vice-chairman of the Board¡@will have to be legally qualified (i.e. qualified for appointment as a District Judge).

The spokesman said the dissolution of the PMCs would yield some immediate savings, including the costs of the PMCs' Secretariat, allowances for PMC members and net savings in staff costs. The total savings to be realized in year 2000 are estimated to be some $300 million. Through further streamlining and more contracting out of services, additional annual savings in the region of $500 million could be achieved by 2003/2004, the spokesman said.

The Bill will be introduced into the Legislative Council on April 28.

End/Thursday, April 22, 1999

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