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Constitution and Administration
• Home Affairs Department's management of booking and use of facilities of community halls and community centres.
The reports of all direct investigations are available on the website.
The Ombudsman received 12,159 enquiries and 5,244 complaints in 2015-16. Areas attracting a substantial number of complaints related to error, wrong advice/decision, ineffective control and delay/inaction.
Although the Ombudsman has no authority to enforce recommendations, 85.2 per cent of her recommendations have been accepted by the organisations concerned as at 31 March 2016.
Audit Commission
The Audit Commission, headed by the Director of Audit, is established under the Basic Law, which provides that it shall function independently and be accountable to the Chief Executive.
The Audit Ordinance provides for the audit of the government's accounts by the Director of Audit and for the submission of the director's report to the President of the Legislative Council. The director also audits the accounts of the Exchange Fund, the Hong Kong Housing Authority, five trading funds and more than 60 other funds, and reviews the financial operations of multifarious government-subvented organisations.
The director carries out two types of audit: regularity audits and value-for-money audits. Regularity audits aim 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 director has statutory authority under the ordinance to conduct regularity audits.
Value-for-money audits aim to provide independent information, advice and assurance about the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which any government bureau, department, agency, other public body, public office or audited organisation has discharged its functions. Except for some public organisations where the director has statutory authority to conduct value-for-money audits, these audits are carried out according to a set of guidelines agreed between the director and the legislature's Public Accounts Committee and accepted by the government.
The director's report is submitted to the President of the Legislative Council and laid before the council, where it is considered by the committee. In 2016, 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, Report No 66 of April 2016 and Report No 67 of October 2016.
For Report No 66, the committee selected one of the eight chapters for public hearing, namely 'Efforts of the Rating and Valuation Department in safeguarding revenue on rates and government rent, and investigated the remaining seven chapters by making written enquires.
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