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PROVISIONAL Urban Council
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pretend to be ignorant and procrastinate, hoping that we would soon forget about our requests. All these phenomenons are very common in our meetings. After the Government announced the dissolution of the Municipal Councils, the attitude of our officials further worsened. The Director of Urban Services is very adept at quoting from Cap. 101. When she doesn't want to implement a certain policy, she refers to Cap. 101. When she wants to open a museum at a preferred time, she also refers to Cap. 101. In one word, there are grey areas in the existing legislation which allow our Director, while being the principal officer responsible for carrying out the Council's decisions, to refuse implementation of the Council's policies. This is, however, still a minor matter. However, our Director's way of doing things is simply against the civil service's work ethic as we understand. Members may recall that when she newly assumed office as Director of Urban Services, she exchanged her car for an old one and then requested to purchase a new “BMW” at the meeting of the Finance Select Committee. When her trick was seen through by Members, she hastily found a subordinate to take the blame. As for the museums, she opens them whenever she likes. While she may claim that this is within the jurisdiction of the Director of Urban Services, I may as well say that she is acting contrary to the Department's consistent policy of being accountable to the Council. The USD is reduced to a "shoe-shining plaza” of the Director.
I have here a caricature by "Jun Tsz" published in the newspaper named after a kind of fruit. Its content includes a cartoon character who looks like the Director of Urban Services, a tongue and a pair of shoes. I will not go into further details of the depiction as it is rather mean. But I hope that this caricature will be included, together with my speech, in the minutes of today's meeting and published in the gazette as part of the records of the Provisional Urban Council.
With these remarks, I support the motion.
Mr. Daniel To Boon-man (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman.
The Urban Council puts more human resources in greening and conservation than any other Government departments in Hong Kong, and remarkable achievements have been made in this regard. However, no mention of this has been made in your Annual Report. Therefore, I sincerely request you to make some necessary supplement and rectification. My proposal for greening and conservation comprises two major aspects: the physical greening infrastructure and the spiritual conservation work. Talking about physical greening works, I must use the information obtained from the Singapore Visit last year to present what I have learnt.
(1) Physical Greening Infrastructure
The Singapore experience
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Page 403 of 606
Page 403 of 606
PROVISIONAL Urban Council
391
pretend to be ignorant and procrastinate, hoping that we would soon forget about our requests. All these phenomenons are very common in our meetings. After the Government announced the dissolution of the Municipal Councils, the attitude of our officials further worsened. The Director of Urban Services is very adept at quoting from Cap. 101. When she doesn't want to implement a certain policy, she refers to Cap. 101. When she wants to open a museum at a preferred time, she also refers to Cap. 101. In one word, there are grey areas in the existing legislation which allow our Director, while being the principal officer responsible for carrying out the Council's decisions, to refuse implementation of the Council's policies. This is, however, still a minor matter. However, our Director's way of doing things is simply against the civil service's work ethic as we understand. Members may recall that when she newly assumed office as Director of Urban Services, she exchanged her car for an old one and then requested to purchase a new “BMW”_at_the_meeting of the Finance Select Committee. When her trick was seen through by Members, she hastily found a subordinate to take the blame. As for the museums,
she opens them whenever she likes. While she may claim that this is within the jurisdiction of the Director of Urban Services, I may as well say that she is acting contrary to the Department's consistent policy of being accountable to the Council. The USD is reduced to a "shoe-shining plaza” of the Director.
I have here a caricature by "Jun Tsz" published in the newspaper named after a kind of fruit. Its content includes a cartoon character who looks like the Director of Urban Services, a tongue and a pair of shoes. I will not go into further details of the depiction as it is rather mean. But I hope that this caricature will be included, together with my speech, in the minutes of today's meeting and published in the gazette as part of the records of the Provisional Urban Council,
With these remarks, I support the motion.
Mr. Daniel To Boon-man (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman.
The Urban Council puts more human resourceS in greening and conservation than any other Government departments in Hong Kong, and remarkable achievements have been made in this regard. However, no mention of this has been made in your Annual Report. Therefore, I sincerely request you to make some necessary supplement and rectification. My proposal for greening and conservation comprises two major aspects: the physical greening infrastructure and the spiritual conservation work. Talking about physical greening works, I must use the information obtained from the Singapore Visit last year to present what I have learnt.
(1) Physical Greening Infrastructure
]. The Singapore experience
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Page 403 of 606
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