payments and a reduction in expenditure on Public Cargo Working Areas; and under 'Fuel and lubricating oil' $344,934 191.1% or 11.6% due largely to economy measures including the laying up of several vessels and a reduction in activities by the aged at Royal Hong Kong Police Force fleet. There were also a number of significant savings as regards 'Special expenditure', because namely; $1,077,978 or 88.2% under 'Engine replacements, spares, auxiliaries and electrical' because of delay in the -ving of delivery of marine engines, hydraulic hoists, etc., ordered from overseas and because one large payment provided for estates in the original estimate was effected before the end of the preceding year; $333,890 or 92% under 'Equipment and ent and special services for Tong Mei Road Public Cargo Working Area' due to delay in the opening of the working area; tenance $1,864,784 or 59.5% under 'Harbour buoys and moorings' because tender prices and handling charges were lower than anticipated and there was delay in the delivery of certain components ordered from overseas; $723,650 or 88.9% under Launch for the Oil Pollution Control Unit' because one large payment provided for in the original estimate was effected before the end of the preceding year; $542,459 or 67.6% under 'Navigational aids equipment' because of delay in the ) under delivery of marine lanterns and other items ordered from overseas and because payment of a large sum included in the effected original estimate was effected at the end of the preceding year; $499,495 or 90.5% under 'Tsuen Wan Public Cargo ipment Working Area' due to delay in the finalisation of the contract for the administration building; $971,050 or 65% under Replacement of Fire Boat 3' because progress in the construction of this boat was slower than anticipated; and $600,000, the whole provision, under ‘Replacement launch - Port Works 2' because construction of this launch had not commenced before the end of the year. There were no significant excesses under expenditure subheads. One new 'Special expenditure' because subhead ‘Replacement launch – Port Health No. 1' was opened with a supplementary provision of $33,800 which was he year fully spent during the year.
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Head 49 – Medical and Health Department
In monetary terms the 'Personal emoluments' excess of approximately $26.5 million was the second largest Personal emoluments excess of all departments and was the principal reason for the overall net excess on the Head of some $28.4 million. There were however a number of other substantial variations between budgeted and actual expenditure. These were underspendings of $2,530,874 (16.1%) under ‘Administration' largely as a result of successful economy measures leading to a reduction in consumption of fuel and electricity; $372,785 (61.3%) under 'Training expenses' largely because legislation governing examination procedures for unregistrable doctors was not passed until November 1976 and it did not prove possible to commence examinations and subsequent training for these doctors by the date originally envisaged; and $320,280 (36.5%) under ‘Special hospital equipment' due to delay in the delivery of special equipment ordered during the year; and an excess of $306,804 (24.8%) under ‘Radiological equipment' because of the purchase of an additional item of equipment, namely a 'linear accelerator' during the year. One new subhead 'Paging system for Queen Mary Hospital' with a supplementary provision of $200,000 was opened during the year against which actual expenditure of $1,935 was recorded.
Head 50 - Miscellaneous Services
There was a net under expenditure of some $86.7 million on the Head as a whole but there were numerous wide varia- tions between estimated and actual expenditure on various subheads making up this net variation. The most noteworthy individual excesses were as follows: $3,880,293 under ‘Commission, difference in exchange, etc.' where actual expenditure exceeded the token provision of $5,000 due to continuing depreciation in the pound sterling exchange rate, this loss in exchange was in previous years deducted direct from the General Revenue Balance in the Statement of Assets and Liabilities; $295,282 (28.9%) under 'Interest' because of an increase in interest payments as a result of an increase in Tax Reserve Certificate redemptions; $808,590 (40.4%) under 'Refunds of revenue' which covers refunds or revenue collected in previous years and is therefore particularly difficult to estimate; $2,927,842 (12.8%) under 'Subsidies for students travelling in public transport' because of an unexpected increase in the number of student passes coupled with 'a revision of bus fares in the case of China Motor Bus Co. Ltd. with effect from March 1976; $860,482 (286.8%) under "Commonwealth Finance Ministers' Meeting' due to an under-estimate of the amount required. There were also eight new 'Special expenditure' subheads opened to meet requirements which had not been foreseen at the time when the Jestimates were prepared with total supplementary provision of $34,725,000 against which expenditure of $32,319,618
was actually recorded. Of these new subheads the two largest were ‘Grant to the Urban Council' where an amount of $23,000,000 was provided to allow a payment on account to be made pending final settlement of the Urban Council's claim for a salary grant arising out of the 1976-77 salary revision and ‘Subscription to the Asian Development Bank' where a sum of $6,880,000 was provided to meet unexpected withdrawals by the Asian Development Bank against promissory notes issued by Government. Both of these amounts were fully expended during the year. Turning to sub- heads where recorded expenditure was less than the estimate the first item of note was $100,000,000 being the whole provision under 'Additional commitments' which was provided to meet expenditure that it was anticipated would be required throughout the year in excess of the amounts voted under other Heads and subheads of the estimates. As additional provision was approved during the year on other Heads and subheads an equivalent amount under this subhead was 'frozen'. Eventually the whole amount under the subheads was 'frozen' in this way and no longer available for expenditure. Substantial savings occurred under 'Recruiting expenses' $1,465,975 or 57.8% because local and overseas recruitment activities did not increase as rapidly as had been anticipated during the earlier part of the year following the previous period of financial stringency; under 'Advances to tenants of condemned buildings' $704,071 or 88% because only a few buildings were declared dangerous during the year; under 'Coinage issues' $15,998,823 or 99.9% because coinage expenditure was met by the Exchange Fund with effect from April 1976; under 'Commercial computer facilities' $886,595 or 24.2% due to delay in the implementation of Phase I of the Waterworks Billing and Information System; and under 'Grant to the Emergency Relief Fund' $700,000 or 23.3% because the original estimate was only a token provision and expenditure of this emergency nature cannot be accurately forecast.
15