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setting Hong Kong.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
They reflect the grave worries our people have in these difficult times, and are deserving of careful study by the powers that be.
Council.
There are some fundamental issues calling for my comments today about the Council. For a start the progress Council has made in the year about to end is impressive even though we might wish for more. All are agreed that our select committees have done very good work, well supported by their sub-committees. I have attended virtually all select committee meetings while in Hong Kong, and so I can say, without fear of contradiction, that Members have shown a strong devotion to duty in the public interest. This single-mindedness of purpose is characteristic of the Council since its re-constitution. You initiated many schemes of benefit to the public while all the time consolidating the position of the Council in nearly all areas of our responsibility. Council will reap in time what you have sown in this first year; the foundation is strong and prospects are promising. Manifestly, most programmes will take time to unfold. Some are producing results immediately; others, likely to do so in the near term, while still others will take years to develop because they require specialist manpower of which the Council is short and also the use of physical facilities now lacking.
The Department.
Regretfully, as I did not fail to point out even before the Council was given separate existence in April 1973, the staff establishment of the department was not and continues to be below our requirement to discharge our responsibility properly. The re-organization of the Council has only shown up starkly what I knew to be the case. Indeed, the position is critical in some areas, particularly in our headquarters, not to mention in the field from where I have heard complaints of staff and equipment shortages.
(Dr. Denny M. H. HUANG arrived at this point.)
Indeed, Council has been told by the Department that they are unable to perform their functions adequately unless they are given the staff to do so and "may even grind to a halt". Deplorably, in more than one specific area, we have already been asked to curtail our programme of activities for this reason. The astonishing aspect of our relations with the Central Government in staff matters is that
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they appear to go their own way, seemingly unmindful of the Urban Services Department's inability to maintain a level of performance satisfactory to the Council in carrying out statutory and other func- tions in the interest of urban Hong Kong. The Council hopes that it will not be put in an awkward position by the Central Government's attitude. In the last resort, the Council would be compelled in the public interest to take other steps even to the extent of not conforming to civil service recruitment procedures in order to make good the deficiency in our manpower requirements, should our and the Depart- ment's repeated calls for remedial action go unheeded. We have financial autonomy and we intend to exercise it to the full for the good of the people. If we pay the piper it is logical that we would want to call the tune.
Now on Building Projects, Recruitment & Training of Staff,
Re-organization of the department.
Perhaps I ought now briefly to review the broad areas of our work. We are pressing for quicker action on the part of the Central Government to construct the buildings and other installations we need for our functions or to advise us to commission private architects and engineers to do so. Such work will undoubtedly absorb a good por- tion of the money we have not been able to spend in our first year. Likewise, if we are to engage on our own the staff we want, we must be prepared to pay adequately for them. This means more money will be spent in this direction. We are also stepping up training courses here and participation in overseas study programmes to better equip our staff to do their jobs.
Internally, in nearly every area of general administration and select committee work, our Council has been consolidating its position and re-organizing where necessary. This process is continuing, but it is very slow. Or, have we perhaps too strong a sense of urgency and are impatient in consequence?
Relations with the Government and the Department—Appreciation of
Outside Co-operation.
Of course, in our relations with the Central Government we have met with every courtesy from the Governor, the Colonial Secretary, heads of departments and many echelons of the administration. Still, we would like to see that, at all levels, our new circumstances are well understood, and we are not crossed in our plans to serve the public by a misunderstanding of the position.