******************************************

Following is a question by the Hon Michael Mak and a reply by the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Frederick Ma, in the Legislative Council today (May 21):

Question:

Regarding government departments' publication of periodicals, such as annual, quarterly and monthly reports, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the total number of copies of periodicals published and the total expenditure incurred by each government department in each of the past three years;

(b) whether it has issued guidelines to government departments on avoiding wastage of public monies in the production of periodicals; if so, of the details of the guidelines; if not, the reasons for that; and

(c) of the respective numbers of periodicals printed by the Printing Department and outside printers last year and the respective costs incurred; and whether it has compared the cost-effectiveness of the two approaches?

Reply:

Madam President,

The question comprises three parts and I shall reply accordingly.

The first part of the question asked for the numbers of regular periodic publications produced by government departments in the past three years and the expenditure involved.

In order to meet departmental operational needs and to provide necessary information to the public, government departments produce a variety of publications each year. Some of these are regular periodic publications, such as the Hong Kong Annual Report, the Government Gazette, policy address, Government Estimates, government accounts and value-for-money audit reports, departmental annual reports and Hong Kong statistical reports. Other publications are produced from time to time and they include policy consultation papers, guides to departmental services, various reports and publications, as well as those printed in response to special ad-hoc needs, such as the public guidelines and publicity leaflets published in recent months for combating atypical pneumonia. Apart from these, government departments also produce different kinds of forms, paper stationery etc. to meet their operational needs. The types of government publications are numerous. Given the objectives, the quantities printed are driven by the actual operational needs of the departments concerned and the public demand for the information published.

In the past three years, the Printing Department handled an average of 25 000 printing jobs annually and the total expenditures incurred were as follows:

2000-01: $278 million

2001-02: $236 million

2002-03: $241 million

At present, around 90%, in value, of government publications are handled by the Printing Department. Since the department does not keep separate statistics on the production of periodical and non-periodical publications, I am unable to provide the detailed breakdown in this manner.

The second part of the question asked whether Government has issued guidelines to prevent wastage of public monies on the production of periodicals.

As pointed out in my response to the first part of the question, the printing of government publications is determined by departmental operational needs and public demand for the relevant information. These considerations are quintessential to the Government's commitments for providing quality services to the public and ensuring transparency of its operations. Moreover, in deciding whether particular publications should be produced, the Heads of Department concerned are in duty bound to critically evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the publications. There should not be any questions of wasting public monies.

On the other hand, in support of the Government's internal economy drive and to help further promote environmental protection, the Director of Administration has, in March 2003, issued a circular to all Bureaux and Departments appealing for further stringent measures for step up economy, including the level of paper consumption and the volume of printed publications. In particular, Bureaux and Departments were asked to re-examine their printing requirements, with a view to keeping the numbers and variety of publications to the absolute minimum and to replace them, as appropriate, by electronic publications. At the same time, the Government has also stopped printing the Government Telephone Directory and the Civil and Miscellaneous Lists. The information has been uploaded to the Government website and is available for free access by Departments and the general public.

The third part of the question concerned the numbers and costs of periodic publications printed respectively by the Printing Department and outsourced printing contractors last year and whether a comparison of the cost-effectiveness of the two approaches had been made.

Last year, the Printing Department handled 25 114 printing items, valued at $241 million in total expenditure. Of this, $35 million was contracted out. In addition, departments have authority to directly contract out their printing requirements, subject to a ceiling of $20,000 for each assignment. We do not have on hand a further breakdown of the figures between periodic and non-periodic publications because the statistics in the Printing Department are not kept in this manner.

Broadly speaking, each of the alternatives of government publications being printed by the Printing Department or by private contractors has its own merits. Since the private contractors normally have larger plants and labour force, they command a higher production capacity and have greater flexibility in scheduling work. Their prices are also relatively lower. In the light of this, the Government has in recent years actively encouraged the outsourcing of printing work and progressively downsized the Printing Department in line with the rate of staff wastage in the department. On the other hand, since the Printing Department is a government department and is subject to government discipline and control, it is able to ensure a high degree of protection to classified documents and offers better responsiveness to urgent printing requirements while at the same maintaining a high quality of publication.

End/Wednesday, May 21, 2003

NNNN