XN000022-1973-11-14 — Page 21

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Wednesday, November 14, 1973

ALLOCATION OF GRANTS AND LOANS FROM LOTTERIES FUND

Procedure To Be Streamlined

Present procedure for allocating grants and loans from the

Lotteries Fund will be streamlined to enable future applications to be

dealt with more speedily.

The Financial Secretary, the Hon. C.P. Haddon-Cave, told the

Legislative Council this today when he spoke on the second reading of the

Government Lotteries (Amendment and Validation) Bill 1973.

Under the Bill, the requirement that every grant and loan shall

be subject to the prior approval by resolution of the Council would be

deleted, leaving the Financial Secretary as the final authority for approving

allocations from the Fund.

However, Mr. Haddon-Cave proposed in turn to delegate this power

to the Director of Social Welfare, acting on the advice of the Social Welfare

Advisory Committee, and subject to certain conditions.

Allocations which do not satisfy these conditions, such as those

involving exceptionally large sums or having substantial recurrent implications,

would require his approval.

The Financial Secretary said he was confident that these changes

would enable applications for allocations from the Lotteries Fund to be

dealt with considerably faster than hitherto.

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