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Following is a question by the Hon Paul Chan and a written reply by the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Tsang Tak-sing, in the Legislative Council today (March 9):
Question:
It has been learnt that since the launch of the Enhancing Self-Reliance Through District Partnership Programme (the Programme) in 2006, the Government has approved a total grant of about $110 million to fund some 110 new social enterprise projects. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the respective numbers of projects, since the launch of the Programme, which have been granted funding and those which have not; the reasons why some of the projects were not granted any funding; and
(b) among the funded projects, of the number of those which were eventually unable to achieve the objectives as set out in their applications, the discrepancies between the achievements and the objectives of these projects, and how the authorities had dealt with these projects in the end; apart from requiring the organizations receiving funding to submit reports regularly, whether the authorities have other measures to regularly monitor the operation of the funded projects; if they have, of the details; if they have not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
Since the Government launched the Enhancing Self-Reliance Through District Partnership Programme (the Programme) in June 2006, it has received a total of 317 valid funding applications and approved 109 of them. The reasons for non-approval are mostly related to such considerations as programme content, concept and business viability, relevant experience and competence of applicant organisations.
The Programme requires applicant organisations to set out a number of targets. In addition to financial and sales targets, the number of staff employed and the target group, and ways to help the underprivileged group are information to be provided. All grantee organisations under the Programme are required to submit regular progress reports during the project period, together with their financial reports and annual accounting statements. Members of the Programme's Advisory Committee or staff of the Secretariat will conduct visits to the organisations concerned to keep in view of the implementation of the approved projects. Where necessary, grantee organisations are invited to attend progress review meetings to examine the progress and effectiveness of their projects.
So far, about two-thirds of the approved projects have achieved or exceeded their business targets in terms of sales turnover or net income. For underperforming projects (e.g. with respect to sales turnover), a taskforce formed by members of the Programme's Advisory Committee will interview the organisations to review the business performances with a view to making recommendations for improvement. The organisations will then be required to submit proposals for business improvement and regular reports on their business performances to the Programme's Advisory Committee.
Ends/Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Issued at HKT 11:34
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