[ JH1AEF]
CONFIDENTIAL
SE Alleyne Esq
Deputy Financial Secretary Government Secretariat
HONG KONG
24 October 1985
HONG KONG FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION
for your
letter of 3 June.
1.
Thank y ou
I apologise for the long delay in providing you with this substantive reply but as y ou know from Clinton Leeks' letter of 4 October to Tony Savage, we have had to consult various departments within the Office.
2.
In view of the confusion that is being caused in Hong Kong over the matter of financial administration, we have considered very carefully your suggestion that Chapter VIII of Colonial Regulations should no longer apply to Hong Kong. Although this would provide a neat solution to your problems it does pose difficulties for
us.
In in
3.
Most,
if not all, dependent territories have in recent years made legislative provision for financial and
audit matters.
To be consistent, we would need to consider a footnote in Colonial Regulations stating that Chapter VIII no longer applies
no longer applies to any territory (not only Hong Kong) which has made the parallel legislative provision.
However, as each territory's legislation probably varies in some respect or the other it would be impossible to cater for each and every variation. addition, in the case of a territory still grant-in-aid or recently emerged,
recently emerged, we would wish to retain authority provided for in Colonial Regulations. I appreciate that there is a precedent in that a special variation of Colonial Regulations (54-66 dealing with discipline) applies to However, this joes not se em to be an exact precedent. Although, on the face of it, the
any responsibility for locally-appointed public officers,
the financial
up
Hong Kong only.
Secretary of State gave the disciplining of
there remained
remained a right
CONFIDENTIAL