TNAG-1361-FCO40-1807-Hong-Kong-Hansard-reports-and-minutes-of-the-meetings-of-the-1985 — Page 57

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These

In

monetised Letters B" are being used for land purchases.

What is the total liability? are not inconsiderable sums.

a document purporting to be a Statement of Assets and Liabilities it should be declared.

While I am on this Statement, I wish to ask the Financial Secretary to clarify the list of contingent liabilities. The list in the Notes on the Statement is twice as long as the list in footnote 18 to the Budget Speech. this mean that our free reserves are in fact less than 6.6 billion dollars as at the beginning of April next?

Does

When revenue yields were flushing and the public accounts, however defined, were in surplus it was inconceivable that we should not be able to meet all our liabilities even though they were growing so fast. But times have changed. Members of this Council need, and the public is entitled to, a full statement of the Government's financial position, which should also include some information about the diversified asset portfolio of the Exchange Fund and some indication of the extent to which the value of the assets in the fund exceed liabilities. The accounts of corporations in which the Government has a majority holding should be consolidated, and where it has small holdings, these should be shown in the

balance sheet.

But beyond the definition of public sector expenditure and the Statement of Assets and Liabilities the form and content of all the Tables, Appendices, Statements of Funds etc. that support the Budget statement should also be examined with the aim of making them as complete and accurate and presenting them as simply and clearly as possible. The Budget publications this year weigh nearly nine pounds (3.85 kilogrammes for those who cling to the metric system) and run to 1476 pages. Unofficials are given a month to tackle all this material in their spare time - an awful warning for those who will be joining us in the future. It is essentially