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the best method of filling them. I think that emphasis is always placed on the possibility of local recruitment.
MR. LO:--But the vacancies are only made known through the advertisements in the newspapers. My idea is that Government should inform the public of the sort of posts for which there is a scarcity of local talent. At the last Urban Council Annual Debate I suggested that Government should establish a Youth Employment Council in order to disseminate information to our schools on the avenues of employment. Would you, Sir, convey this suggestion to Government and assure Government that once it is done, it will help to solve its problem of not finding sufficient locally-qualified men to fill the vacancies.
CHAIRMAN:--Sir, I am quite certain that any suggestion made in this connexion in the Annual Conventional Debate has already been forwarded to Government for consideration. I will certainly refer your remarks again to the Colonial Secretary.
MR. LO:--Thank you.
MOTION.
MR. K. A. WATSON moved the following motion:—
That this Council deplores the refusal by the Colonial Secretariat to allow a representative of the Establishment Branch to appear before the Estimates Select Committee or the Standing Committee of the Whole Council to discuss the proposed cuts in the number of cleansing staff requested in the 1965/66 Estimates.
He said:--Mr. Chairman, may I first of all hand to the Hansard Reporter a copy of my speech. (Laughter).
Mr. Chairman, this motion arises out of the refusal of the Establishment Branch of the Colonial Secretariat to give the Urban Council the staff required to clean the streets, and its refusal to discuss the reasons for these cuts in staff. I would like to emphasize that it is the Urban Council which is the authority for keeping the streets clean and not the Urban Services Department, and that it is the job of the Estimates Select Committee, of which I am Chairman, to try to make sure that we get sufficient staff for the Urban Services Department to carry out our instructions. I lay on the table a paper defining the various functions of these bodies.
In the autumn, the Department prepared its draft Estimates for new posts required in the next financial year. This was a paper of 104 pages, giving full details, specifying the actual streets that each new labourer was expected to sweep. After careful study by the Estimates Committee, this was then sent forward to the Establishment Branch. Four months later, on 26th January, we learnt that the Secretariat had disapproved of a number of posts, including 270 in the Cleansing Division alone. Explanations were given for some of them, but for others no reasons were given. On making inquiries, I was told that someone in the Secretariat thought that if we used mobile teams of beat-sweepers, we could manage with the reduced staff. Now, as I could not see how this could be done, I asked for further details and was told that that was all the Department knew about this particular thing. I therefore invited a representative of the Establishment Branch to come and discuss the matter with us, a perfectly normal procedure which is carried out with the representatives of the Police, the Public Works Department, the Education Department, the Legal Department, the Labour Department, and others, without any loss of dignity. The Establishment Officer, however, refused our invitation, saying that it was "inappropriate" and that he would only deal with heads of departments.
Meanwhile, we were left with the problem of how to keep the streets clean, without knowing what the Secretariat had in mind. The matter was therefore referred to the Standing Committee of the Whole, which repeated our request. The Colonial Secretary then wrote to the Chairman refusing and saying "The present methods of beat-sweeping were called in question when last year's Estimates were being prepared and your department was asked to review them before applying for any further posts. This review was not carried out, and new posts requested in this year's Estimates were accordingly disallowed pending the review."
Unless the Colonial Secretary was misinformed, it appears that these cuts had no practical basis but were made to punish the Urban Services Department for not having made the review requested. Unfortunately, no one had apparently told the Colonial Secretary that this review had been made and that a report had been sent to him on 11th August, 1964, just six weeks before our Estimates were considered and forwarded. So it would appear therefore that there is no justification for the cuts at all.
A month before we were told anything about the cuts, our Estimates, reduced by the Secretariat, had been put before the Establishment Sub-Committee of Legislative Council, who had accepted them, having been told the same story. The fact that there had been no discussions with the Urban Council or with the Urban Services Department and that no agreement had been reached was concealed from it. As a result, the reduced figures went straight into the Colony's draft Estimates.
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