33 Head 41
Information Services Department. Subhead 999 010. Publication receipts. I have previously referred to cases in which the Director of Information Services made overly optimistic assessments of the saleability of publications which he produced, resulting in substantial percentages of the copies printed remaining undistributed and being eventually destroyed or sold as scrap. A somewhat similar situation seems to have arisen in respect of two publications in connection with Her Majesty the Queen's visit to Hong Kong in May 1975. The first, entitled 'Royal Visit Souvenir', was intended to publicise the programme for the Royal Visit in order that the people of Hong Kong might be informed where they could see Her Majesty, but although it was scheduled to be ready one month before the actual visit, in the event it was not available for sale until a week or 10 days before Her Majesty's arrival and even taking into account free issues, over a third of the booklets are still in stock. In response to my inquiries the Director of Information Services has expressed the view that it should be an object of praise and satisfaction that so many copies of the booklet were sold in such adverse circumstances.
34 In the case of the second publication the Director has however conceded that it might have been wiser to have reduced the quantity printed. This was the souvenir book 'The Queen in Hong Kong', of which 9,600 copies were produced at a cost of $55,400. The book was not put on sale until six months after the conclusion of Her Majesty's visit and, again taking into account free issues, well over half the copies remain on hand. The Director of Information Services has agreed that in retrospect his judgement was at fault in thinking that he could sell nearly 10,000 copies such a com- paratively long time after the visit. He is now attempting to sell the books at half-price, but accepts that if they cannot be sold in this Silver Jubilee year, he is likely to be left with a heavy stock balance.
35 Head 49 – Medical and Health Department. Subhead 103. Payment for medical and health services. 001 British Military Hospital. A scheme implemented in March 1976 enables facilities at the British Military Hospital which are surplus to military requirements, to be made available for the use of patients referred to the hospital by Government medical officers, payment being made by the Government to the military authorities at pre-determined rates for the services actually used. Audit examination of expenditure incurred under the scheme indicated that bills rendered by the British Military Hospital were inadequately verified prior to payment and that, as a result, overpayments to the military authori- ties may have occurred. In certain cases also, I could see no evidence that demand notes had been raised by the Medical and Health Department to recover from patients, the hospital charges due from them. The Director of Medical and Health Services is inquiring into the matter and is taking steps to improve the internal control and checking procedures involved.
36 Head 49 - Medical and Health Department. Subhead 999 030. Medical and dental charges. In paragraph 13 of my previous report I referred to the obligation which Section 8 of the Motor Vehicles Insurance (Third Party Risks) Ordi- nance places upon vehicle owners or their insurers in certain circumstances to pay to a non-profit making hospital, the expenses reasonably incurred by such a hospital in providing medical treatment to victims of traffic accidents, and I invited attention to the fact that, although this statutory liability had existed since 1951, it had never been enforced. At that time I was given to understand that in accordance with a suggestion which I had made five years earlier, action was being taken to increase the maximum liability more into line with present day costs and that the legislation would then be enforced with effect from 1 July 1977. I have more recently been advised that that date was perhaps too optimistic, but that the matter is being processed with all due speed. This is indeed desirable for even conservatively estimated, each month's delay results in loss to the Government of potential recoveries of over $100,000.
37 Head 50 - Miscellaneous Services. Subhead 102. Cable and Wireless services. Under an agreement entered into with the Government in 1964, in succession to a similar agreement which originated some twelve years earlier, Cable and Wireless Limited maintains and in some cases operates Government telecommunications equipment, payment to the company being made for the actual cost of the service rendered. The economic justification for the agreement was the premise that both parties would benefit from the lower cost of one organisation, rather than two, providing services in a similar field. However only six years after the first agreement came into force the Post Office Telecommunications Division, whose role was then intended to be one of inspection and licensing, began to accept responsibility for the maintenance of telecommunications equipment acquired by various Government departments, a service which despite the Government Secretariat's reiteration in 1962 of the policy that with limited exceptions Government telecommunica- tions services should be installed, maintained and technically operated by Cable and Wireless Limited, continued to expand, the technical workshop staff employed by the Division rising from 4 in 1961 (out of a total staff of 17) to 37 in 1977 (out of a total staff of 151). This has created confusion, with the maintenance arrangements lacking in co-ordination and control, but whilst the unsatisfactory nature of the situation had been recognised for several years it was not until 1976 that the Government took a positive step towards resolving it by the appointment of a Working Party to examine the use made of the agreement and to make recommendations for any changes considered necessary. The Report of this Working Party is awaited.
38 Meanwhile my own review of the working of the agreement, although indicating that there was no reason to doubt the wisdom of the original policy, nevertheless showed that the economies in the cost of maintaining Government tele- communications equipment which the agreement with Cable and Wireless Limited was designed to secure, had not been fully realised over the years, largely because of equivocation and inadequate attention to the objectives of the policy. The growth of the Post Office workshop contrary to those objectives has resulted in the duplication and dissipation of effort, diverting attention away from the Post Office Telecommunications Division's prime functions and from checks on the proper control of the maintenance conducted by Cable and Wireless Limited under the terms of the agreement. In this respect the savings which might have been possible are perhaps exemplified by my own examination of Cable
12
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.