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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
DR. HUANG (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, I can assure Mr. SULKE that the department will certainly investigate the case and ask the driver concerned and if our vehicles are found to emit exhaust smoke excessively, you could either report to the Urban Councillor concerned or report to the director so that appropriate action can be taken and we welcome suggestions for improvement
in this area.
MR. LAWRENCE FUNG (in English): ---Mr. Chairman, what is the possibility of the U.S.D. acquiring our own Hartridge smoke tester because we do have several hundred vehicles in our fleet and using a visual method of inspection is not a very
reliable method?
DR. HUANG (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, in the past the U.S.D. does not have inspection staff and it was only in the past few years that we have pre- liminary checking facilities and maintenance facilities. As to whether we are going to go for complicated machines to help us in our vehicle maintenance. I think I should leave it to our experts, the department to decide before I could give you an answer.
2. MR. WALTER M. SULKE asked the following question (in English):---With reference to paragraphs 58 and 61 of the Report and Certificate of the Director of Audit on the accounts of the Hong Kong Government, could I please be told why, when mistakes were made in the departmental procedures for the calculation and recording of leave eligibility, the Director of Audit has not been given a report of the thorough check of leave records he recommended in early 1984 nor a reply to the observations issued by him in February 1985?
MR. CHAN CHI-KWAN, PETER, on behalf of the CHAIRMAN OF THE ADMINISTRA- TION SELECT Committee, replied as follows (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, when I wrote the reply, the chairman of the appropriate committee was not in Hong Kong and I now answer on behalf of the Chairman of the Administration Select Committee.
This question concerns the comments made by the Director of Audit in his Annual Report for 1984-85 about mistakes made in the calculation of leave and the irregularities found in the leave recording system in the Urban Services Department and the reason why he has not been given a reply since the matter was raised in February 1985.
It was unfortunate that a reply was not given to the Director of Audit at an early date, however the following action was taken. A random check of the leave records in the former City Services Department was carried out by the Civil Service Branch in April 1984 and errors were detected in the calculation of leave. On their advice, aside from the organization of briefing sessions for all the officers concerned on the correct method of calculating leave entitlements, arrangements were made by the department in June 1984 to check 30% of the leave records with a view to assessing the extent of and the need to rectify errors.
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Later that year in October the Audit Department also undertook a separate examination of the leave recording system in the former City Services Department. Subsequent to this examination, they wrote to the Department in February 1985 proposing measures to improve the departmental leave recording system and enquired about the result of the 30% checking suggested earlier by the Civil Service Branch.
The measures proposed by the Director of Audit to improve the leave recording system were immediately introduced throughout City Services Department. As regards the checking of leave records, 30% of the records in the Kowloon West Region had been checked by August 1984 and over 90% of these were found to be in order. Errors detected were rectified. Because of heavy workload pressures, checking in other Regions could not be conducted in one-
but have been undertaken on an arising basis.
go
On 1 April 1985 the Department was reorganized. The checking of leave records continued under the system suggested by Audit Department until October 1985 when a new Civil Service Branch procedure was introduced for the whole of Government. This system involves checking entries over the past 3 for 5% of the leave records on a quarterly basis by rotation and has been years adopted in the Urban Services Department.
The Director of Audit has been informed accordingly.
3. MR. WALTER M. SULKE asked the following question (in English):-In view of the criticism of Government's lack of computer installation disaster recovery planning by the Director of Audit in his recently published report, and in view of our increasing use of computers, could I please be told what steps are being taken by the U.S.D. to make sure that records now on computers can be recovered in case of natural disaster, or human error, or human sabotage?
MR. LAWRENCE H. L. FUNG, CHAIRMAN OF THE COMPUTERIZATION SUB- COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in English):---This question concerns steps taken by U.S.D. to safeguard the Council's records on computers.
In selecting computers, the Department would make sure that computers are purchased from suppliers with a good reputation for offering reliable support and positive company policies for providing replacement systems quickly in the event of a disaster. Within practical limits, the Department builds into the Council's major computer systems all necessary preventive measures to protect them from risks emanating from natural disaster, human error or sabotage. Where possible, disaster back-up arrangements are maintained with the com- puter supplier or manufacturer.
The Department also sees to it that the systems are installed in secure locations, away from public areas and with due security devices. These locations are chosen also as they are least susceptible to flooding; and fire defensive measures recommended by the Fire Services Department are strictly followed.
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