6.32 The Secretary for the Civil Service agreed that the abuses of the private dental scheme, which the Government as a good employer had introduced to help its staff, would discourage the Government from introducing future schemes for the benefit of civil servants. The scheme had been intended to help civil servants at a time when there had been a shortage of dental facilities. Given that the vast majority of officers who took part in the scheme did so honestly, it was disturbing that a very small minority of dentists and civil servants had spoiled a good scheme for the majority.
6.33 Conclusions and Recommendations. The Committee are of the view that an expensive lesson was learned from the private dental scheme for civil servants. The Committee trust that before embarking on similar schemes in future exhaustive consideration is given to the problems of their implemention.
6.34 The Committee wish to be informed if further evidence emerges that other dentists, other than the two referred to in the hearing, are guilty of abusing the scheme.
FINANCE BRANCH
6.35 Paragraphs 39-42. The need to charge the Urban Council for abortive work on abandoned Urban Council projects handled in-house by the Architectural Office of the Building Development Department. The Committee invited attention to the provisions of the Memorandum of Administrative Arrangements under which the Urban Council is required to pay to the Government the full costs of all staff, services and materials provided by the Government. They asked the Deputy Financial Secretary whether the Government had a right to recover from the Urban Council the costs of abortive work on abandoned projects handled in-house by the Architectural Office. The Deputy Financial Secretary said that it was not clear in the Memorandum that this was an automatic charge and that the Urban Council had not been charged for such abortive work before. He stated that in a sense this was a new charge or a new interpretation of the particular section of the Memorandum. He thought that it would be quite reasonable to ask the Urban Council to pay, although such a charge could not be imposed on them.
6.36 The Committee asked whether the matter indicated a lack of clarity in the Memorandum. The Deputy Financial Secretary agreed. However the Memorandum had been made between two parties and the Government would have to negotiate with the Urban Council to remove the grey area.
6.37 The Committee commented that there was every justification to ask the Urban Council for a refund of the cost of abortive work done as this was the present practice in respect of abortive work undertaken by consultants. They asked the Deputy Financial Secretary to explain the rationale for not treating the work done by the Architectural Office in the same manner. The Deputy Financial Secretary replied that the work done by consultants was paid in cash whereas in the present case the work was done in-house by the Architectural Office.
6.38 The Committce enquired whether there were valid reasons for the view that, as full statistics on the amount of time spent by the staff of the Architectural Office on abortive work for the Urban Council in the past were not available, the question of charging should be further considered, say, in two years' time. The Deputy Financial Secretary explained that the thinking behind this was that if the Urban Council were asked to pay for the abortive work, the Council might ask for an estimate of the costs so that they could incorporate them in the rate or some other charges. However he confirmed that there was no need to wait for two years to collect the statistics and the Government could start negotiating with the Urban Council immediately.
6.39 The Committee asked whether a decision could be taken immediately to recover the costs of all abortive work where statistics are available. The Deputy Financial Secretary said that there was a need to establish the principle whether there should be a charge on the Urban Council and that recovery action should be taken if this was the case. The Committee commented that this principle should apply not only to the Architectural Office but also to other Government departments. The Deputy Financial Secretary reiterated that this was a grey area as in some instances the full costs were charged and in others some costs were not charged at all. He remarked that it was necessary to refer to the original Memorandum which had been drawn up ten years ago to see whether the charge should be raised and, if so, by how much. The Deputy Financial Secretary agreed with the Committee that this point should be taken into account in drawing up the Memorandum for the new Regional Council.
6.40 The Committee asked whether the Urban Council were under the impression that they would not have to pay for such abortive work and whether the Council had been notified of the possibility that they would be asked to pay for such work in future. The Deputy Financial Secretary said that although a formal request had not been put to the Council, they should have been aware of this possibility from the comments in the Director of Audit's report.
6.41 The Committee asked whether charging the Urban Council for abortive work on abandoned projects handled in-house by the Architectural Office would act as a discipline upon the Council which would reduce the amount of abortive work and result in more effective use of the staff resources of the Architectural Office. The Deputy Financial Secretary remarked that such a practice would certainly cause the Council to think twice before changing its mind in these cases.
6.42 Conclusions and Recommendations. The Committee are concerned at the Government's failure to charge the Urban Council for abortive work done on abandoned Urban Council projects handled in-house by the Architectural Office. The Committee note that the current Memorandum of Administrative Arrangements does not provide clearly for this. The Committee recommend that immediate action should be taken to revise the Memorandum of Administrative Arrangements so as to clarify the matter beyond all doubt. The Committee further recommend that the point should be covered in any Memorandum of Administrative Arrangements drawn up with the Regional Council.
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