TNAG-1486-FCO40-2040-Public-finance-in-Hong-Kong-1986 — Page 7

3

Paragraphs

3.10 - 3.12

security

Overpayments to the contractor at Kai Tak Airport by the Director of Civil Aviation in the absence of a formal and efficient profit control system

The Airline Operators Committee has now accepted the proposal that the airlines should assume greater responsibility for supervising the security contractor's charges and profit margins and that

that these charges should not form part of government expenditure. A programme to implement the necessary changes has been drawn up and is expected to be completed by August 1986.

The Director of Civil Aviation has now reached agreement with the contractor on the accepted bases for apportionment of costs to various sterile area activities for the period between 1 April 1984 and the date of implementation of the proposed new arrangements. These bases have been confirmed by the Director in writing to the contractor, and audited accounts for 1984 and 1985 are to be submitted by

by the contractor. These accounts will be used to determine any adjustments to provisional payments in order to restrict security service profit levels to 14.4%. The same profit level will be included in the proposed budget for 1986 which the contractor is also to submit for the Director's approval.

K

the

Paragraphs 3.13

3.13 3.14 Overassessment of janitor staff and cleaning grants for aided secondary schools and Government's failure to ensure that the surplus money was properly invested or otherwise not mis-used

In June 1985 the Director of Education advised the aided school councils that the janitor staff establishment of standard Government Secondary Schools and the notional establishment of janitor staff in standard aided secondary schools should be reduced from 17 to 13. As the notional establishment is used as the basis for calculating the janitor staff and cleaning elements of the Administration grant, the Director informed the councils that the level of the grant would be reduced proportionately. The reduction was to be in three phases starting from 1 April 1985.

The councils have

have objected to the reduction in the level of the grant on the grounds that aided schools have different needs for janitor staff and that many of their buildings are different from government schools.