HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
233
In monitoring the Department in its implementation of tasks and skilful use of resources, the Urban Council has a definite role to play. Indeed, Members of this Council did take up that role. However, the role of us as Members of the Council has its limitations. First of all, in many cases, the Council is not deeply involved in the policy operations of the Department, and lacks the initiative and spontaneity. Secondly, Members do not fully understand the practical operation of the divisions in the Urban Services Department. As such, the Council may not be able to monitor effectively on detailed, non-principle and concrete matters. At the same time, the Department's proposals of creating more posts are generally submitted to different Select Committees one by one separately on a piecemeal basis, so that Members do not have an overview or overall picture for deliberation.
It is therefore the opinion of the Democratic Party that when various Select Committees of the Council consider future plans, more attention should be paid to the allocation of resources whereas continued efforts should be directed to monitoring the efficiency and use of resources in different branches. We should also try commissioning experienced consultancy firms to conduct an in-depth overall review and examination into the staff establishment and administrative structure of the Department. This way, we hope to streamline our establishment. As it is, there are differences between the existing staff establishment and actual number of staff in various branches. We can take the opportunity and our past experiences to re-examine the Department's establishment. In no way should we continue to keep or trim and add to the size in accordance with practical needs. Only with careful scrutiny can we hope to trim unnecessary manpower and re-deploy staff to branches with more urgent needs. We will then improve the administrative efficiency of the Department. In order to keep up or even improve the operational efficiency of various divisions, a set of effective feedback machinery will be essential. Mr. Wu Chi-wai will go into this in details.
Of course, the terms of reference of the consultancy firm should not be limited to the reviews of the establishment, administrative structure and the setting up of a evaluation machinery as mentioned just now. It should include the Department's future development and suggest more creative ideas on how to improve cost-effectiveness and how to go in line in strategy with the situation in front of us. In April this year, the Democratic Party moved at this forum for the privatization of market management. We wanted to break the hard shell of market management. Although the motion was carried, the Department's response was neither active nor positive. The consultancy firm can very well go from the point of privatization of services in offering workable outlets in respect of municipal services and the departmental Operations. There is also the need to further delineate and better define the Council's relationship with other departments so that waste or duplication of resources can be avoided.
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