TNAG-1729-FCO40-2442-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 111

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Mr. David Li claimed that the voluntary agencies

receive only 20 percent of the funds provided for social

welfare purposes, while providing more than 70 percent of

welfare services, a state of affairs which he ascribed to

the inadequacy of the current subvention policy. I fear

that in his efforts to praise the voluntary agencies for

their resourcefulness something which, incidentally, I

for one would not dispute

-

A

Mr. Li has not taken account

of the fact that a large proportion of the total

Social Welfare Department

л

expenditure in the, WD and subvention heads is in the form

of social security payments and not direct welfare

services. If we exclude the social security payments from

the calculation and compare like with like we find that of

the total budget allocated for the provision of welfare

services, about 69 percent consists of subventions to the

which is es, very

voluntary agencies, very close to the 70 quoted by Mr.

Li. I am grateful to Mr. Li for giving me the opportunity

to put the record straight on this point.

3/se p.

Mr. Hui has again expressed concern at the

disparity between the fringe benefits available to staff

of subvented organisations and the public service. This

is a complex area and there is little I can add to what

the Financial Secretary said in this Council on 10

February.

As he pointed out, fairness between the two

groups does not necessary imply uniformity.