CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION
24
complaints; ineffective control; negligence or omissions; faulty procedure; failure to follow procedures and selective enforcement.
The organisations receiving most complaints were the Housing Department, Correctional Services Department, Lands Department, Hospital Authority, Urban Services Department, Legal Aid Department, Post Office, Immigration Department, all registries and administrative offices of courts and tribunals for which the Judiciary Administrator has responsibility and the Social Welfare Department. Most of these organisations have frequent contact with members of the public and are more vulnerable to complaints than others.
Office of the Director of Audit
The Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China provides that an Audit Commission shall be established in the HKSAR, and this Commission shall function independently and be accountable to the Chief Executive of the HKSAR. This law took effect on July 1997, upon the transfer of sovereignty from the United Kingdom to China. Accordingly, the former Audit Department has been renamed as the Audit Commission. The Audit Commission is one of the oldest departments in Hong Kong. The first Auditor- General was appointed in 1844.
The Audit Ordinance, enacted in 1971, provides for the audit of the government's accounts by the Director of Audit and for the submission of his report to the President of the Legislative Council. The Director also audits the accounts of the Urban Council, the Regional Council, the Vocational Training Council, the Hong Kong Housing Authority, the ex-government hospitals under the Hospital Authority, six trading funds and more than 60 statutory and non-statutory funds and other public bodies. Furthermore, the Director reviews the financial aspects of the operations of the multifarious government-subvented organisations.
The Director of Audit carries out two types of audit: regularity audits and value- for-money audits. Regularity audits are intended to provide an overall assurance of the general accuracy and propriety of the financial and accounting transactions of the government and other audited bodies. The Audit Ordinance gives the Director statutory authority for conducting regularity audits.
Value-for-money audits are intended to provide independent information, advice and assurance about the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which any bureau of the Government Secretariat, department, agency, other public body, public office or audited organisation has discharged its functions. Except for some public organisations where the Director of Audit has obtained statutory authority to conduct value-for-money audits in the respective Ordinances, value-for-money audits are carried out according to a set of guidelines tabled in the Legislative Council by the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee in 1986.
After the Director of Audit's report has been submitted to the President of the Legislative Council and laid before the council, it is considered by the Public Accounts Committee. In 1997, the Director submitted three reports: one on the audit certification of the government's accounts for the preceding financial year and two on the results of value-for-money audits.