43
- 5-
of the Military Contribution assessed as at present.
If the proposed undertaking is such that additional revenue
will be earned thereby the estimate of the latter has to
be reduced by 20%: if, on the other hand, new revenue
is required in order to finance it, the yield must be
greater by 25% than the amount actually required. Furthermore
if there is a choice between getting work done by
Government or by private or semi-public institutions the
decision between the two may be affected by the possible
effects on the Military Contribution payable. There has
been for example of late years a tendency for private
charitable institutions to rely more and more on Government grants (e.g., the Tung Wah Hospital and Associated Chinese Charities and the Hong Kong Benevolent Society) and
there is something to be said for a great deal more
Government participation in such charities. The same
is largely true of the University of Hong Kong. If,
however, necessary funds can be collected from private
subscriptions no Military Contribution is payable whereas
if they come from a Government grant and therefore
indirectly necessitate increased revenue additional
Military Contribution is paid.
9.
The other main class of difficulties are
complications in the keeping of Government accounts. These
are innumerable. Often they merely cause extra work
without having any wider effects. In other cases they
necessitate special consideration and possibly legislation
before accounting rules intended for general use in the
Colonial Empire can be applied here, as e.g. in the
recent cases of the new accounting procedures in relation
to revenue refunds and unallocated stores. The following
are, however, cases in which the accounting difficulty