TNAG-1364-FCO40-1810-Hong-Kong-Hansard-reports-and-minutes-of-the-meetings-of-the-1986 — Page 57

Question No. 5

Reply by the Hon. D.P.H. Liao, CBE, JP, Secretary for District Administration to the Hon. LEE Yu-tai's question in Legislative Council on 4 December 1985

The management of Community Centres was transferred from Social Welfare Department to City and New Territories Administration in June 1985. Will Government inform this Council :

(a) following this transfer, is there a reduction in the number of staff

members who are assigned by Government to work in these centres;

(b) if there is a reduction, how does it

affect the use of these centres by the public, and

(c) will Government consider any improvement?

Sir,

(A)

Overall, there is no reduction of

Government staff assigned to work in community centres, estate community centres and community halls. There were 394 staff solely from SWD working in these centres before the transfer while there are

now 415 (230 from SWD and 185 from CNTA). The transfer of the management of community centres

is to rationalise the resource allocation of Social Welfare Department and CNTA so that the former

can concentrate its manpower resources in social work services while the latter assumes the general role of community building. The process necessarily entails