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Film Festival are being finalized. Judging by the offers received, it is safe to predict that it will be another successful festival. It is also an indication of acceptance by the international film world of the growing significance of this annual event.
Computerization Sub-Committee
During 1982, the Council continued to expand the scope of its computerization programme with the installation of an IBM System 34 for the Accounts and Supplies Office. A system to monitor electricity and gas usage by the various sections enables the Accounts Office to keep a close watch on the pattern of electricity and gas consumption. Consumption figures are compared on a month-to-month basis as well as a year-to-year basis. Exceptionally large discrepancies are highlighted for investigation. The System currently monitors almost 900 electricity and gas bills per month.
The Supplies Section uses a computerized stores inventory system to keep track of over 4000 transactions per month and over 2500 items in three storehouses. The system produces instant response to item inquiries and regular stock status, stock movement and exceptional reports.
A computerized budgeting and accounting system is being used to process the day-to-day accounting documents such as payment vouchers, cheques, invoices, and bank statements. A special feature of the system is its ability to handle budgets and commitments. A variety of report and inquiry functions are provided, and exceptional situations such as over-commitments and over-expenditures are automatically highlighted. The system also enables the Council's monthly Statement of Vote, probably the most important report, to be produced in a fraction of the time it took to produce it manually. The system handles over 10,000 transactions per month. There are currently 600 sub-head and 2,500 supplier records.
The Council has given approval to computerize its revenue records. The system, when completed, will be used to process all market stall rentals, various types of licences and permits, demand notes, and other records. The system will be developed to run on the Accounts Office's computer. There are currently over 6,000 market stalls. This number is expected to increase significantly with the completion of new market buildings and complexes in the next few years. There are 11,000 licence and permit records of various types.
Plans are in hand to computerize personnel records of the 17,000 staff employed by the Council. Computerization is expected to produce timely and up-to-date information on establishment, vacancies, promotions and staff training to the personnel management staff in the U.S.D., and eliminate the need to compile periodic reports for the Government using manual means.
During the year, the Council brought into use a computerized store and retrieve litter offense records. Prior to computerization, most litter offenders were treated as first-time offenders because of the difficulty in producing records of previous offences in court. The computerized system enables details of previous offences to be retrieved for prosecution. By being able to produce previous offence records in the anti-litter court, the Council hopes that heavier fines imposed on repeated offenders would serve as a deterrent against litter offences. An average of about 4,000 litter offences were recorded per month between September 1982 and December 1982. The average fine was $119 and the average fine for repeated offenders was $182, which represented a 53% increase.
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Another project in the pipeline is the computerization of hawker records and hawker offence records. Computerization of these records is expected to improve planning for and control of licensed and unlicensed hawkers by reducing the number of manual labour needed to keep the records up-to-date. There are some 30,000 licensed hawkers and the Council wants to keep tab on thousands of hawker offences committed each month.
For the Cultural Services Department, the computerized balloting system has been enhanced so that in addition to randomizing over 7,000 applications each month, the system also does automatic session assignment for the badminton courts, squash courts and table tennis allocations. Statistics are also produced to enable applicants to see how the requests are distributed each month.
Owing to unsatisfactory long delays proposed by the selected supplier of the computerized ticketing system, the award of the contract had to be revoked and fresh tenders called for. Our E.D.P. staff are now in the process of evaluating the bids and implementation of the system has now been rescheduled for mid-1983. Another computerization project being actively pursued is that of the libraries. A feasibility report prepared by the E.D.P. staff has been accepted. The Council intends to acquire an on-line integrated library system to handle circulation control, cataloguing and acquisition functions. A special feature of the system will be the ability to handle bibliographic records in both English and Chinese.
Mr. Chairman, I'd like to support the motion before the Council.
(Miss Cecilia L. Y. YEUNG arrived during Mr. Lawrence FUNG's address.)
DR. KIM Y. S. CHAM (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman,
Urban Council Centenary
This year marks the one hundredth year of the Urban Council since the establishment of the Sanitary Board on 18 April 1883. To celebrate the occasion, a Centenary logo with laurel leaves has been designed under the auspices of the Council. I think this token of memory is most appropriate in view of the Council's impressive record of service to the community and its profound improvements in scope and quality achieved over this history of a century.
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