The Secretary for Economic Services also sought the opinion of the Deputy Financial Secretary who expressed the view that the need to approve an organization's budget should only arise in the case of a deficiency subvention as the act of approving the budget determined the maximum amount of subvention payable. Therefore the Deputy Ficial Secretary advised against amending the Hong Kong Tourist Association Ordinance to provide for the Assoon's budget to be approved by the Government.
118. Very recently however the Deputy Financial Secretary has advised the Secretary for Economic Services that there is now a strong case for an amendment to the Hong Kong Tourist Association Ordinance as it is clearly no longer appropriate to rest on the arrangements that were put in place when the Association was first set up. The Deputy Financial Secretary considers that to ensure that the subvention to the Hong Kong Tourist Association represents good value for money against all the other competing demands for Government funding the amendment of the Hong Kong Tourist Association Ordinance would seem to be the simplest and most effective way.
119. The absence of any direct Government control over the Association's expenditure has proved to be an impediment to the Government's effort to ensure that the salaries and benefits provided by the Association to its staff are not more generous than those awarded to their equivalent posts in the Civil Service.
120.
In paragraph 97 of my report for the year ended 31 March 1982, I noted that whilst the Government's policy was that salaries and benefits paid to the staff of subvented organizations should not be greater than those paid to their equivalent posts in the Civil Service, the Association's procedures for fixing its salaries were not as clearly defined as those of the Civil Service and it had been difficult to draw up a proper comparison between the salaries paid to the Association's staff and salaries paid in respect of posts with comparable responsibilities in the Civil Service. I had therefore advised that the Association should anchor each of its posts to an equivalent rank in the Civil Service and I had supplied the Secretary for Economic Services with a list of suggested civil service ranks of equivalent responsibility which the Association was studying. I also noted that whilst with certain exceptions the salaries paid to the Association's staff were within the salary scales for the equivalent ranks in the Civil Service as set out in the list, in many instances staff of the Association had been receiving 'merit increments' in addition to their normal annual increments. This had had the effect of giving those staff a 10% salary addition at the upper end of the scale and a 15% addition at the lower end of the scale.
121. In November 1982 the Secretary for Economic Services informed the Public Accounts Committee (paragraph 5.18 of the Committee's Fifth Report) that the salaries in the Association were under review, and in March 1983 the Government Minute stated that the Association recognized the principle that the conditions of service and benefits enjoyed by its staff should not be more generous than those enjoyed by staff of comparable ranks in the Civil Service. The Association was studying the list of suggested ranks of equivalent responsibility and would make out a case where there was disagreement. The Government Minute also stated that the Association would promote its staff where this was justified and would not award merit increments beyond the maximum permitted point of the appropriate salary. scale.
122. In February 1983 the Hong Kong Tourist Association appointed consultants to carry out a study of grade and salary comparisons between the Association and the Civil Service. The consultants concluded in essence that in the majority of cases the staff of the Association received lower salaries than those awarded to civil servants for similar appointments. The consultants' report was referred to the Secretary for the Civil Service and the Deputy Financial Secretary for comments. The Secretary for the Civil Service was unable to advise on the validity of the findings because of inadequate information on the approach and method employed. The Deputy Financial Secretary was unable to see how and to what extent the consultants' report had achieved what it was supposed to do and he also had reservations about the methodology adopted by the consultants. He added that he found it impossible to support the findings of the consultants unless fresh arguments and details were provided.
123. Although the Secretary for Economic Services informed the Hong Kong Tourist Association in March 1984 that the Civil Service Branch and the Finance Branch of the Government Secretariat had been unable to come to any hard and fast conclusions on the basis of the methodology and contents of the consultants' report, he later informed the Deputy Financial Secretary that he was not in a position to request the Association to submit revised proposals on the salary structure because "there is no requirement for the Association to submit proposals other than to its own Board, over whose decisions the Hong Kong Government can exert no more than indirect control". In December 1985, the Secretary for Economic Services recommended that the matter be closed.
124. The Hong Kong Tourist Association has since April 1985 revised its salary appraisal system to align it more closely with the commercial sector, as recommended by its consultants. As far as can be ascertained, no study has been conducted by the Secretary for Economic Services to ensure that under the revised system, the Association is complying with the Government's policy that salaries and benefits paid to the staff of subvented organizations should not be greater than those paid to their equivalent posts in the Civil Service, although I understand that the Secretary for Economic Services is currently reviewing the matter.
125. Head 178 - Technical Education and Industrial Training Department. Subhead 908. Grant (Non-Recurrent) Vocational Training Council building programme. When the Vocational Training Council was formed in 1982 it took over from the Government the five existing technical institutes and responsibility for the construction programme of new technical institutes and training centre complexes, which would be financed by grants from the Government. In a
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