TNAG-2675-FCO40-3872-Hong-Kong-garrison-withdrawal-plan-1993 — Page 97

GOVERNENT HOUSE HONG KONG.

Major General J P Foley C8 OBE MC

pmmander British Forces

CBF 501

Mr A Asprey, OBE AE JP. Secretary for Security Security Branch

Central Government Offices Lower Albert Road

Hong Kong

PG.23.

WED 14 APR 93 09:55

AFS (C)

Finance Branch

7.4.93

(3)

HEADQUARTERS BRITISH FORCES HONG KONG

BRITISH FORCES POST OFFICE 1

Tel: 8024728 Hong Kong

31 March 1993

Dear Alastair,

CALL ON HE THE GOVERNOR BY PUS VISITORS AND NEW VEHICLES

HKG FIGURES ABOUT MOD

I thought I should put the record straight on the statistics for MoD visitors and deliveries of new vehicles which the Governor quoted during PUS's call on 23 February, and which are recorded at paragraph 1(e) of Mr Dinham's minute.

My

we can find no collateral for the figure of "700 officiel MoD visits per year". I understand that this was culled from a newspaper article, and it was not checked with my staff. own investigations from the records kept by the visits co- ordination office here show the 1992 figure to have been around 130. To put this figure in context, the garrison differs from the Hong Kong Government in that almost all its

It is administration is based with authorities in the UK. necessary that we have visits to deal with a range of issues- policy (e.g. S of S, PUS); personnel (e.g. the recent Army redundancies, Gurkha reduction plans); functional standards

We maintain a very (e.g. equipment support, flight safety). close watch on the number of visitors, and ensure that they only come here if the visit is genuinely necessary,

The previous The replacements

The figure of 168 vehicles (cars, vans, buses) is correct (and was checked with my staff). This is not a typical annual figure.

This represents Fleets are replaced periodically. the final purchase of administrative vehicles for the garrison, which will see us through to 1997. Fleet was old and maintenance intensive. have been purchased through HKG agencies from the local market, and will be fully maintained by the contractor under This means we can reduce equipment support costs guarantee. from the UK, and save manpower by closing some elements of our workshops. We therefore regard this purchase as evidence of our concern for efficiency and value for money, rather than the opposite.

CARE

REGIST

#5 APK 1993

+

CURITY

2/