HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
405
To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the District Boards, he made the following sarcastic comments on the Urban Council: ‘Dr. LEUNG Ding-bong, Chairman of the Urban Council, knocked the table to stop his fellow Members speaking. It is a fact that in the Urban Council, they cannot speak freely other than on municipal affairs during their normal sittings, it is therefore no surprise that Urban Councillors behave like "a crowd of starving ghosts being released" during the Annual Debate as they finally have the long-awaited chance to pour out their hearts.' I have always intended to condemn Mr. WONG for the above comments. However, after listening to the speeches made by some Members on the first day of the Debate, I cannot deny that there is an element of truth in Mr. Wong's remarks.
I made a number of proposals at the Annual Debate in January last year in the hope that the relevant Select Committees would pay attention to my concern and take some improvement action. However, after one year has passed, I still cannot see any action taken to improve the situation, although it has been a turbulent year for the Council—a lot of unexpected and unprecedented things have happened. If the Council is really implementing the “Alternate Ministerial System', the Honourable Chairman and Chairmen of all Select Committees should be held responsible for the slow progress in making improvement. Now that the storm has died down a bit, I believe it is in the interest of everybody for me, regarded by some Councillors as a hot-tempered Member who likes ‘overstepping the line', to make an objective review of the performance of the Council in the past year.
Performance of the Council subjected to severe criticism
1.
Last year, I talked about the inefficiency of the USD, which was nicknamed 'Gigantic bovine tortoise' as it had got a staff of nearly 17,000. An Urban Councillor has earlier moved a motion debate to call for a 'comprehensive review of the USD staffing establishment and administrative structure'. However, this motion was voted down as a result of the divisive tactics employed by those Members in power. It is indeed the responsibility of the Administration Select Committee to revive the idea of such a review without delay.
2. Regarding the delays of capital projects, there were altogether 33 projects behind schedule last year. Things have become no better than they were last year, though we do find the progress reports on these projects look a bit different in that such evasive terms as 'anticipated commissioning date' instead of 'completion date' are used. Moreover, the delays have also led to a cut of government funding as the Council has too much money left due to the delays of these projects. All in all, the fact that the Chairman of the Capital Works Select Committee's permissiveness to the departmental staff and his inability to improve the situation are indeed a regrettable thing.
3.
Despite the introduction of provisional licence, the procedure of restaurant licensing remains slow and confusing. Prosecution work is
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