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and the chairmanship, the Council is involved directly in the management and supervision of the Orchestra through its representatives. Therefore, as far as the question of the proper use of public money is concerned, I have great confidence in the Council's representatives.
Concerning the second question of the type of mechanism used in monitoring the Orchestra, as I have clearly explained, it is carried out through the Council's elected representatives who take part in the work of the Orchestra.
As for the question of how those colleagues who have not taken part would know the situation, Members will recall that the Culture Select Committee does allocate time to its representatives to outside bodies to submit their reports. In fact, if any Member is interested in knowing more, he can raise enquiries so that our representatives may, at the meetings of the Culture Select Committee, report and provide more information.
As for the question of whether any method guaranteeing value-for-money and other management practices are adopted by the Orchestra to ensure maximum cost-effectiveness, I am sorry to say that as I am not a representative of the Council to the Orchestra, I have no specific idea of how they manage the Orchestra and whether there are any management practices. However, as far as I know, they do have some management practices in place to ensure the maintenance of an effective and efficient administration. If Mr. CHUNG is interested, we may request the Council's representatives to make arrangement for the Hong Kong Philharmonic Society to brief us on its management practices one of these days.
The third question is whether there are objective yardsticks to assess the global artistic achievement and status of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.
The fact is that there is so far no international poll showing the most popular orchestra music such as the pop charts. Regrettably there is no such popularity poll. However, there have been commentaries and music commentators in various places of the world giving advice on the standard of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and these have given us the impression that at least Hong Kong ranks among the top international orchestras, although we don't know the exact position.
Mr. Chung's last follow-up question is about the complaints from dismissed musicians, the directorship and the management work of the Orchestra. In so far as they involve the Council, I as the Chairman of the Select Committee did show concern for and find out what they were about, but at the same time we have to observe a very important principle and that is, we have to respect the administrative autonomy of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Society. Our involvement in its work has to be carried out through the Council's representatives and it is being carried out. These complaints and problems
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