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Date:
Time:
26.11.86.
12.15
8.30
Reporter: PMO
questioning session of the first lady Controlling Officer, and probably the only one, we have a few questions here which the Committee would
like to cover and I will start with the first one, which relates to paragraphs 62 and 63 of the Director of Audit's report relating to late occupation of the centre for the elderly and a youth centre in
Tsuen Wan. Madam Director, whether earlier action should have been
taken by your Department to invite applications from voluntary
agencies to avoid delays caused by procedural requirements.
DSW: Could I make one or two comments, sir. I am sorry
I didn't catch the earlier part of the question, but I assume the question is directed on the lack of progress on the Luk Yeung Sun
Chuen premises?
MR LEE: Yes, Madam Director, whether earlier action
should have been taken by your Department to invite applications from
voluntary agencies to avoid delays arising from procedural requirements.
DSW: Yes, I think that the difficulty in these two
particular cases was not simply on account of the timing in respect of inviting agencies to operate services. Perhaps I could just
explain the background. In the case of Luk Yeung Sun Chuen, there
were two projects that had been earmarked for welfare purposes;
24 the first was the social centre for the elderly and the other was
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the children and youth centre. I think the Director of Audit's account for the reasons for the delay in occupying the first premises, i.e. the social centre for the elderly, is substantially correct.
I would only add that in this case it also took us some time, or
rather it took the agency some time to satisfy the Department that it had the financial ability to operate the service, because this
service does not receive full financial support from Government.
But the centre has been operating since June 1986. Now, in the
case of the children and youth centre, the major problem really was that part of the premises was designed for a games hall and was not
suitable for the intended purpose. We did try to persuade the 36 developer to make good the deficiency but we failed. We decided
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