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A clear accounting system
I turn now, Mr President, to the amendments proposed by the Honourable Emily Lau. The first of these calls upon the Administration to institute an accounting system clearly identifying costs incurred by the Department including those incurred in advising, acting on behalf of, or representing Government departments, thereby injecting greater transparency and accountability to the Department's operations.
Before responding to that amendment, I would like to describe briefly the Department's current accounting system and how we identify the cost of the services we provide. At present, the spending of my department is grouped under 5 programme areas. Under each programme area, a breakdown is kept for costs incurred for each category of activity. For example, in the Prosecutions Division, we can identify the costs incurred for trial preparation, asset recovery, extradition, advisory work and prosecutions, and so on. Similarly, in the Civil Division, we can identify the costs incurred, for example, for civil litigation, for mutual legal assistance, for the drafting the preparation of construction contracts, and for advisory work. The costs cover staff costs, other operating costs such as office equipment, as well as costs for briefing out work to outside lawyers. These costs are incurred largely as a result of providing legal services to other Government departments and law enforcement agencies. This system allows us to have a more focused view on the cost of the services we provide. It also provides a basis for identifying savings and possible redeployment of resources.
So we already have a system of accounting which can identify cost. But, Mr President, I have no difficulty at all with the suggestion that we should look further at that system to see if it can be refined to provide better information as to costs and I taken on board the faults Miss Lau over inter-departmental charging, something that I think she's worrying in the past and also the question of over time recording and performance indicators.
If I just say a brief words about inter-departmental charging. My initial reaction to that is while there may be attraction in this, we must be careful that it will not bring in its wake unnecessary bureaucracy and since it ... wide implications I should have to explore the idea further with my senior colleagues including the Financial Secretary and the Secretary of the Treasury but I've taken the point.