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Government puts every dollar of its spending to best use

The Government must put every dollar of its spending to the best use if it was to hold true to its 'small government' philosophy and to strictly control the growth in its expenditure, Secretary for the Treasury, Mr K C Kwong, said today (Thursday).

Speaking at the opening of the Ninth International Federation of Purchasing and Materials Management Asia-Pacific Conference in Hong Kong, Mr Kwong said the Government did this through a two-pronged approach.

"On the one hand, we consult widely to ensure that we have a good grasp of the community's spending preferences and priorities," he said.

"We ensure that Government decisions are open and accountable to the community. Through our efforts, we aim to build a broadly-based consensus on where Government spending should be focused."

On the other hand, said Mr Kwong, the Government did everything possible to keep the cost of public services down.

"We must constantly strive for better value for money. We must continuously look for opportunities to do things, new and old, in a more cost-effective way," he said.

Mr Kwong said the Government now purchased goods with a total value of over $6 billion a year.

"Our procurement policy is that we should aim to obtain the goods and services which represent the best value for money, having regard to their suitability for users' requirements, competitiveness in price, maintenance and other operational cost, reliability of performance and where applicable, after-sale support," he said.

To achieve these policy goals, the Government was constantly on the look-out for opportunities to improve the efficiency of its procurement process, he added.

He cited the building of a new Government Logistics Centre in Chai Wan as an example.