1985 — Page 127

Page 127 of 195

222

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

Such new budgetary procedures point to the establishment of an effective monitoring system in the right direction. The policy review will enable the relevant functional select committee to examine existing provisions of services and activities in the light of community needs. In parallel, the five-year forcast of revenue and expenditure seeks to define their acceptable levels for the next five years, including items of both recurrent and non-recurrent nature. Understandably, there are significant implications engendered by non-recurrent and capital expenditure for future recurrent expenditure and revenue. Aided by these forecasting instruments, the select committee responsible will become more competent to commit the Council to current programmes as well as those in the near future. Where the assumptions for assessment are thus made clear and explicit, the Council is better capable of decisions not only for the coming year but over the medium term. The third measure is the development of the conventional annual budget for the next year. This annual budget, albeit traditional, is indispensable for the formulation and execution of our immediate plans.

Two points are worth noting with the introduction of this set of financial and management tools. First is the dual task of cost identification and allocation which is obviously not completed in full yet. Certainly, this does not carry any adverse connotation on the proficiency of our chief Treasury Accountant. On the contrary, he should be commended for his indigenious and outstanding efforts in performing this job of immense magnitude. Nevertheless, cost identification and allocation is an ongoing process and as such, it should be reviewed continuously in a critical and regular manner. With the assistance of computerization, the Council should aim at expediting this operation in order to determine its levels of expenditure and revenue. In this connection, to provide subsidy for any type of service must be a conscious decision of the functional select committees and the Council as a whole. In order to preclude hidden subsidies, the principle of earmark taxation should apply. For this purpose, it is imperative to establish at key points cost centres so as to minimize the time otherwise consumed in costly and lengthy costing exercises. While such development will not doubt be strategical, the Council, with its select committees, must still face certain fundamental questions. These include: Are better alternatives available? Can the costs of certain services be reduced? Would acquisition from other sources be cheaper? It is evident that the Council is not obliged to purchase services from another government agency or any designated sources, since competitive bidding by virtue of free market economic principles prevails. All in all, I am convinced that the right step in the right direction has been initiated and what is required now is further refinement.

Having now taken this important step, the Council with its functional select committees should now employ this set of tools intelligently. At the same time, it should set itself the next task of evolving a more detailed system of monitor and control in order to scrutinize its policy and activity programmes more closely. Undoubtedly, we need to peg our objectives to a specified span of time, thus enabling us to review then vis-a-vis output and resource input, both at the

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

223

beginning and at the end of the period. Naturally, it is essential for the Council to consult the Urban Services Department for ideas and suggestions on improvements in its process of decision making on these issues, let alone the importance of not over-looking its strategical role to monitor and oversee performance of the Department and the Urban Council within the context of public services.

Staff Training

Training provides a crucial means of updating the special knowledge and skills of our staff so that they can serve the public interests efficiently and effectively. While some may argue that our staff should be well qualified already before entering the Urban Services Department, training is evidently indispensable to upgrade job knowledge and skills for them to keep abreast of modern technology. This important function has hitherto been undertaken by the training school which was established in December 1982. The school organizes in-house, basic and refresher training, while at the same time local institutions of higher learning may be commissioned to run specialist training in the variety of the Council's services. Besides, officers are sent overseas in the event that advanced specialist training is not available locally. Nevertheless, training programmes are basically designed so as to allow the maximium use of local resources or at least, with the ultimate aim of developing locally commissioned programmes to replace the present overseas arrangements. In the fields of recreation, horticulture, sports, librarianship, arts administration and food technology, various courses now commissioned serve to demonstrate the relative success with which the conversion from academic overseas programmes to local ones have been accomplished. While this strategy is credited for its cost- effectiveness and the broader scope of exposure tenable for our staff, the Council must endeavour to erect concomitantly a good monitoring mechanism for the evaluation of the relevant programmes and staff performance on them. Any adverse reports, such as relating to habitual absenteeism from these courses should be taken with alarming and warrant serious attention. In the instance of commissioned courses, it is also important for the Council to collaborate closely with the commissioned institutions so as to ensure effective control over the training programmes and activities.

To improve the quality of existing training, I strongly commend the recent creation of a task force for research and development under the auspices of the training school of the Urban Services Department. Other than involving itself in evaluation and development tasks, it has set off to develop self-taught packages on specific topics, as supported by the use of audio-visual materials. This inventory will be especially useful to individual officers who cannot make themselves available for the normal programmes of instruction but who can now acquaint themselves with the relevant skills through self-taught means at their own pace and time. While this method of training is both cost-effective and schedule-efficient, let alone its advantage of entailing standardization in content and quality, one must bear in mind that interaction is of equal importance to the

Page 127 of 195