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Monday, June 25, 1973
"Because this work by the voluntary sector is recognised as being
of major importance to the community, the government is responding to a
request from the voluntary agencies to increase social welfare subventions,"
he said.
Ee pointed out that this increase in government subvention has
to be administered selectively.
"Against this background, it is also fairly reasonable to accept
that as the proportion of government financial assistance to total annual
budget grows, so must also the degree of joint consultation on operational
plans and finance become more pronounced," he suggested.
Mr. Hardy said that as social welfare subventions become the major
percentage in the agency budget, the government, through the Social Welfare
Department, should be more involved in the voluntary agencies' position on
where and how the higher payments are to be put to work.
He suggested that the government can best help the voluntary sector
by developing subventions along the lines of a "discretionary" and "deficiency"
grants system.
The trend is set clearly towards a selectively expanding social
welfare subventions policy in which the larger the proportion of government
subvention to total expenditure becomes, the greater will be the obligation
on the part of the agency to accept in exchange a wider, deeper and constructively
critical scrutiny by government of its affairs."
/Flexibility,
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