XN000022-1995-07-26 — Page 26

14

Sewage Services Trading Fund

Following is the speech by the Secretary for Works, Mr James Blake, to appropriate assets to the Sewage Services Trading Fund under the Trading Funds Ordinance in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Mr President.

I move the motion standing in my name in the Order Paper.

On 11 March last year, in accordance with Sections 3, 4 and 6 of the Trading Funds Ordinance, the Sewage Services Trading Fund was established in the Drainage Services Department.

The Sewage Services Trading Fund manages and accounts for the operation of sewage services. This involves a number of key tasks, in particular, the timely implementation of the High Priority Programme of capital works urgently needed to reduce pollution in the Harbour, and the administration of the new charges to cover the cost of operating sewage services.

Following the passing into law of the charging scheme for sewage services on 1 April this year, the Sewage Services Trading Fund became responsible for the collection of charges and the proper use of the revenue to fund the operating costs of providing sewage services. These services include the maintenance and operation of public sewerage systems and sewage disposal facilities, as well as the billing and the collection of charges for sewage services levied in accordance with the Sewage Services Ordinance.

For the Sewage Services Trading Fund to be fully functional under the provisions of the Trading Funds Ordinance and in line with the trading fund concept, it is necessary for the Director of Drainage Services as general manager of the trading fund to have stewardship of the public sewerage systems and sewage disposal facilities. This will allow the general manager to maximise the efficiency of asset management. It is to this end that I move this Resolution to appropriate to the Sewage Services Trading Fund those assets which were operational at the time of the introduction of the scheme of charging for sewage services.

A detailed inventory of the assets to be appropriated is held by the Director of Drainage Services in his capacity as the general manager of the Sewage Services Trading Fund under Section 6(2) of the Trading Funds Ordinance. This inventory is described in the Resolution, which also provides that the assets cannot be disposed of without the prior approval of the Financial Secretary.