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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
contracting-out or privatizing the Council's services as soon as possible. The schemes should be re-examined from their initial stage of tender invitation to the stage of contract execution so as to ensure that they should at least have the following features: there is a clearly-defined objective to improve urban services; they are conducive to upgrading the service image of the Urban Council and the quality of its public services; there are clear service standards, working procedures, performance pledges, monitoring mechanism and system of award and penalty; there is also a proper remuneration and benefit package, a reasonable entry wage level, a good personnel management system and a corporate culture that strives for continuous improvement. In short, contracting out services does not mean that we can wash our hands of the services and let contractors do what they like. We cannot allow the contractors to take advantage of the loopholes of the contracts and make unreasonable profits through the public services provided by the Urban Council.
With these remarks, I support the motion.
Ms. ADA WONG YING-KAY (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, in my address last year, I expressed serious worry and concern about the transition of the Urban Council itself. At that time, I said that the Urban Council's powers, scope of duties and functions had changed over the years. Since no one had reassured us that the Council would stay on after 1997, how could we prove to the public the importance of the Council and the value of its existence? In the past year, I and other Councillors attempted to bring up the subject or propose the formation of a working group to discuss transitional matters, but it seemed that everyone wanted to avoid the issue. However, can we continue to evade this matter when there are only 160 odd days before the handover?
Looking back at the past 30 years or so, the Urban Council, a body that has been in existence for more than a century, experienced a great many changes. Before 1973, the Council had much more powers and much larger scope of duties than now. Resettlement and housing affairs fell under our jurisdiction and the Councillors could personally query the Director of Resettlement, who was a member of the Council. Before the days of the District Boards, when Members of the Legislative Council were wholly appointed, the Government attached importance to the Urban Council.
In 1973, the Urban Council's powers were weakened and its scope of duties narrowed by the Central Government in exchange for its financial autonomy. Housing affairs were taken over by the Housing Authority, which was an independent entity, and the Urban Council was charged with sole responsibilities for environmental health and recreational and cultural affairs. The Council's appointed seats were abolished, and the Chairmanship was assumed by a non-appointed Councillor. Undoubtedly, the withdrawal of appointed Councillors was a stride towards democracy, but what followed was that the Government started to make active preparations for the creation of another district administrative set-up, the District Boards.
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