TNAG-1415-FCO40-1896-Public-finance-in-Hong-Kong-1985 — Page 266

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CONFIDENTIAL

SE Alleyne Esq

Deputy Financial Secretary Government Secretariat

HONG KONG

24 October 1985

HONG KONG FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION

for your

letter of 3 June.

1.

Thank y ou

I apologise for the long delay in providing you with this substantive reply but as y ou know from Clinton Leeks' letter of 4 October to Tony Savage, we have had to consult various departments within the Office.

2.

In view of the confusion that is being caused in Hong Kong over the matter of financial administration, we have considered very carefully your suggestion that Chapter VIII of Colonial Regulations should no longer apply to Hong Kong. Although this would provide a neat solution to your problems it does pose difficulties for

us.

In in

3.

Most,

if not all, dependent territories have in recent years made legislative provision for financial and

audit matters.

To be consistent, we would need to consider a footnote in Colonial Regulations stating that Chapter VIII no longer applies

no longer applies to any territory (not only Hong Kong) which has made the parallel legislative provision.

However, as each territory's legislation probably varies in some respect or the other it would be impossible to cater for each and every variation. addition, in the case of a territory still grant-in-aid or recently emerged,

recently emerged, we would wish to retain authority provided for in Colonial Regulations. I appreciate that there is a precedent in that a special variation of Colonial Regulations (54-66 dealing with discipline) applies to However, this joes not se em to be an exact precedent. Although, on the face of it, the

any responsibility for locally-appointed public officers,

the financial

up

Hong Kong only.

Secretary of State gave the disciplining of

there remained

remained a right

CONFIDENTIAL