Dr Wyver HKD
нес 37017
10 NC 100%
ཏི ་
p.a. 370/7
FROM:
Jill Barrett
Assistant Legal Adviser
K174 270 3381
DATE:
15 November 1993
ADAPTATION OF LAWS: PAPER NO 7
1. I refer to your minute of 1 November concerning Hong Kong Government's draft consultation paper on adaptation of laws (Audit Ordinance). I regret I was not able to do it last week as I was out of the office at the Dumping meeting, and am grateful for your agreement to extend the deadline until today.
2. Proposals (a) and (b)
A slight change of substance is being proposed, in that the formal action (appointment or dismissal of the Director of Audit) is to be taken by the CPG rather than the Chief Executive, whereas at present the action has to be taken by the Governor. There is probably not much difference between an appointment made by the CPG upon the nomination of the Chief Executive on the one hand, and an appointment made by the Chief Executive with the prior approval of the CPG on the other. Nevertheless it would be interesting to know why HKG propose to make this change.
3. Proposal (c)
This proposal is more puzzling, in that the power of the Governor to appoint with the prior approval of the Secretary of State is simply to be transferred to the CPG. I wonder why it is not proposed to adapt this provision consistently with section 3(1), ie appointment by the CPG upon the nomination of the Chief Executive.
4. Proposal (q)
This proposes replacement of various references to the Governor by references to the Chief Executive. However, in the version of the Ordinance which I have (the authorised Loose-leaf edition), there are some additional references to the Governor which I would have expected to see included in this proposal. They are in sections 12(2), 12(2A), 16(1)(a) and 16(2).
5. The proposals do not mention the references to "the Governor as President of the Legislative Council" in sections 12 (3) (a) and 13(1). I presume that the appropriate adaptation would be to delete "Governor as ", but I presume also that this must have already been done by an amendment to the Ordinance, as the Governor is no longer President of the Council. Yet again, it would seem that the authorised Loose-leaf edition which we have in our legal library is out of date. I wonder if we are missing some recent supplementary pages, or whether HKG are behind with the publication of new legislation in this