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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
consultancy firm on areas of difficulty. If we plunge headlong into appointing a consultancy firm now, we will incur substantial financial burden. I can see that there are several particularly difficult policy areas that incur heavy financial commitments. Mr. CHAN Choi-hi has already quoted the example of the Cheung Sha Wan Abattoir. In 1986, this Abattoir slaughtered 4,700 heads of livestock a day. This has now dropped to 30% or 1,700 heads per day. The expenditure in 1986 was $94 million. By the year 95/96, it doubled to $195 million. The deficit was $110 million representing nearly $9 million a month. If several million dollars are spent on commissioning a consultancy firm to study into cutting our annual deficit of $100 million as I suggested at the recent meeting of the Public Health Select Committee, we still stand to gain.
There are areas which the Department should review and improve. I have mentioned privatization and the contracting out of services just now. Nearly a year ago, I asked for a review of the liquor licensing policy etc. Improvements are needed in many areas. So, let me call on colleagues to discard the burden of the influence of lobbying. Discard worries about antagonizing the Department, or
MONTANA
Chairman (in Cantonese):—I am sorry, Mr. NG, I have to stop you here. I think you should take note that you can only say so if you have concrete evidence.
MR. STANLEY NG WING-FAI (in Cantonese):—This is why I call on colleagues to support our motion. Thank you.
MR. ERIC WONG CHUNG-KI (in Cantonese):—That there are two amendments to today's motion debate shows the topic of debate is a matter of great concern for us. If you look carefully at the differences between the original motion and the two amendments, you can see that everyone shares the common concern for a review of the staff establishment and organizational structure of the Urban Services Department. The question is who conducts the review.
In the current term of the Council, colleagues have been making efforts to formulate Statements of Aims and Five-Year Plans in various Select Committees. This is to a certain extent a change brought into the modus operandi and culture of the Council. As the executive arm of the Urban Council, if the Urban Services Department sticks to past methods of operation when faced with such a change, I think it will not be able to meet the expectations of Urban Councillors or their demand for cost effectiveness.
At present, there are over 15,000 staff members in the Department. Information shows that vacancies have been existing in the Department in the last ten years. According to statistics provided by the Department, there are at present more than 1,000 vacancies. It seems from the statistics that the Department is facing a lot of work and manpower shortage is a long-standing problem. However, over the past few years, the Department did not conduct a
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