24
CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION
District Administration
District boards are statutory bodies established in 1982 to provide an effective forum for public consultation and participation in administration at the district level.
There are 19 district boards throughout the territory. They consist of members elected from constituencies in each district, appointed members, and Urban Councillors or rural committee chairmen who have seats reserved for them on the boards in the urban areas and in the New Territories respectively. There are altogether 237 elected members, 132 appointed members and 57 ex-officio members on the boards.
The functions of the district boards as laid down in the District Boards Ordinance are principally advisory. The boards discuss and advise the government on a wide range of matters affecting the well-being of the people in the district. Through the advice they give, the boards make important contribution to the management of district affairs. They also help to monitor the work of the government at the district level.
At the same time, the district boards also give views on important policy matters with territory-wide implications, such as the development of representative government, the long-term housing strategy, film censorship, control of noise pollution and of agricultural waste, and other proposals relating to law reform. They are also responsible for minor environmental improvements and the promotion of recreation and cultural activities in their respective districts, with funds allocated specifically for this purpose. A sum of $39 million was provided to the 19 district boards for this purpose for 1987-8.
In order to keep in close contact with the views of local residents, many board members take part in the meet-the-public scheme. Under this scheme, local residents can make appointments to meet their board members in the district office and to express their views on local issues and problems. In the task of local administration, the boards work closely with district management committees (DMCs), which are chaired by the district officers and comprise representatives from the various government departments working in the districts. The DMCs provide a forum for inter-departmental consultation and discussion to help ensure that action taken by the government is co-ordinated and responsive to local needs and that, as far as possible, the advice of the district boards is taken into account.
The 67 Public Enquiry Centres in the district offices and their sub-offices served 16 million people during the year. These centres provide a wide range of services free of charge to members of the public, including answering general enquiries on government services, distributing government forms and information materials, administering statutory declara- tions, and managing the Free Legal Advice Scheme and the Rent Officer Scheme.
Area committees and mutual aid committees form an integral part of the district administration scheme. The area committees are based on geographical areas, each containing about 40 000-50 000 people. Members are appointed from a wide cross-section of the community. The mutual aid committees are building-based residents organisations established with the aim of improving the security, cleanliness and management of, in the main, multi-storey buildings. There were 110 area committees and 4 243 mutual aid committees throughout the territory, providing an effective channel of communication between the government and local residents at the grass-roots level.
During the year, the government conducted a thorough review of district administration and implemented measures to improve its effectiveness. These included the introduction of a series of administrative measures to ensure that the government as a whole became more responsive to the advice and requests from district boards and the provision of additional staff for district offices to strengthen liaison with area committees and mutual aid committees.