TNAG-1486-FCO40-2040-Public-finance-in-Hong-Kong-1986 — Page 24

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SPEECH BY HON S L CHEN, CBE, JP

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

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5.2.1986

RA (Audit)

Sir,

Tabling of Public Accounts Committee Report

Laid on the table today is the Eighth Report of the Public Accounts Committee. This has been prepared following the

Committee's examination of matters raised in the Director of

Audit's Annual Report which was tabled in this Council on 20

November 1985.

This year's Director of Audit's Report has brought into sharp focus an unresolved issue from previous years, which

relates to the Director's powers.

It has been the practice in compiling his successive reports for the Director to conduct value for money studies. Public Accounts Committee is in no doubt of the need for such studies and has implicitly endorsed the Director's right to conduct them by commenting on them in its own reports.

The

What is less clear are what the boundaries of value for

money studies are, or should be.

So as to put this matter beyond all doubt in the future, the Committee recommends that there should be an early review of the Director's powers with the aim of clarifying firstly whether the Director may conduct value for money studies and secondly the boundaries within which such studies should be

conducted.

Sir, there is nothing unusual nor surprising in controversy over the Auditor's powers. Indeed similar debates have occurred in all those territories which have adopted a similar system to ours. However while the solutions adopted in

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HKK 100/4.

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY 1 8 FEB 1986

IK OFFICER

PA

.......FRY

Action Taken

ASB