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Mr. David Li claimed that the voluntary agencies
receive only 20 percent of the funds provided for social
welfare purposes, while providing more than 70 percent of
welfare services, a state of affairs which he ascribed to
the inadequacy of the current subvention policy. I fear
that in his efforts to praise the voluntary agencies for
their resourcefulness something which, incidentally, I
for one would not dispute
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Mr. Li has not taken account
of the fact that a large proportion of the total
Social Welfare Department
л
expenditure in the, WD and subvention heads is in the form
of social security payments and not direct welfare
services. If we exclude the social security payments from
the calculation and compare like with like we find that of
the total budget allocated for the provision of welfare
services, about 69 percent consists of subventions to the
which is es, very
voluntary agencies, very close to the 70 quoted by Mr.
Li. I am grateful to Mr. Li for giving me the opportunity
to put the record straight on this point.
3/se p.
Mr. Hui has again expressed concern at the
disparity between the fringe benefits available to staff
of subvented organisations and the public service. This
is a complex area and there is little I can add to what
the Financial Secretary said in this Council on 10
February.
As he pointed out, fairness between the two
groups does not necessary imply uniformity.