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boards is much the same as that of ours. Examples are district environment improvement projects, minor work projects and cultural/recreational activities. The Council can throw in more resources and delegate more powers to district boards in the hope that they will evolve from a purely advisory body to one with actual power to manage resources in respect of district management and affairs. In this way, the relationship between the Council and District Boards will be closer and the two will be able to cooperate in bettering our municipal, environmental improvement, cultural and recreational services.
The premise of this consultation exercise is centralising power over food safety and environmental hygiene, but Government is shifting the focus of attention. The Council is in fact not the main outpost of food safety matters. The Liberal Party has collected information on this and we can see that Government should set up a body similar to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the US to handle food safety at the production, import, transportation, storage and sales stages and to monitor the above processes. In the US, the FDA carries out food testing every year, collects samples for scientific analysis, confiscates unsafe food as well as prosecutes the relevant producers and distributors. In fact, the above are not the duties of this Council. Our duties lie in areas of environmental hygiene, health education, food premises licensing and urban amenities. I hope the work of the Department of Health (D of H) and the Agriculture and Fisheries Department (AFD) can be appropriately restructured so as to set up a food and drugs safety board in charge of testing food and drugs for safety, managing food and drug labelling and carrying out all sorts of sample testing. I also hope that after the merging of the two municipal councils, a definite number of members will be nominated to sit on the board.
Mr. Chairman, I emphasised in our past two Annual Debates that we should not sit back and wait for what was to come (power cut by Government). I said that we should not be led by the nose by the Department. Our image was in the past a problem partly because of our inadequate professional knowledge and partly our lack of determination. The existing Ordinance vests considerable powers to the Council, but we have not utilised them properly. If we can unite in the coming year, we can perhaps clean out our bad image of the past and let the public see that an elected council can work with high efficiency and transparency. We are duty bound to inform the public what we have referred to government officials for action.
I have ten points of proposal for wiping out our tarnished image and I think the proposals are just as important as the Consultation Document on Review of District Organisations. These are:
1. We should set up an agenda for overall review on how to streamline the staff establishment and structure of the USD;
Doc 97 of 606
Page 87 of 606
Page 87 of 606
Page 87 of 606
108
PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
boards is much the same as that of ours. Examples are district environment improvement projects, minor work projects and cultural/recreational activities. The Council can throw in more resources and delegate more powers to district boards in the hope that they will evolve from a purely advisory body to one with actual power to manage resources in respect of district management and affairs. In this way, the relationship between the Council and District Boards will be closer and the two will be able to cooperate in bettering our municipal, environmental improvement, cultural and recreational services.
The premise of this consultation exercise is centralising power over food safety and environmental hygiene, but Government is shifting the focus of attention. The Council is in fact not the main outpost of food safety matters. The Liberal Party has collected information on this and we can see that Government should set up a body similar to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the US to handle food safety at the production, import, transportation, storage and sales stages and to monitor the above processes. In the US, the FDA carries out food testing every year, collects samples for scientific analysis, confiscates unsafe food as well as prosecutes the relevant producers and distributors. In fact, the above are not the duties of this Council. Our duties lie in areas of environmental hygiene, health education, food premises licensing and urban amenities. I hope the work of the Department of Health (D of H) and the Agriculture and Fisheries Department (AFD) can be appropriately restructured so as to set up a food and drugs safety board in charge of testing food and drugs for safety, managing food and drug labelling and carrying out all sorts of sample testing. I also hope that after the merging of the two municipal councils, a definite number of members will be nominated to sit on the board.
Mr. Chairman, I emphasised in our past two Annual Debates that we should not sit back and wait for what was to come (power cut by Government). I said that we should not be led by the nose by the Department. Our image was in the past a problem partly because of our inadequate professional knowledge and partly our lack of determination. The existing Ordinance vests considerable powers to the Council, but we have not utilised them properly. If we can unite in the coming year, we can perhaps clean out our bad image of the past and let the public see that an elected council can work with high efficiency and transparency. We are duty bound to inform the public what we have referred to government officials for action.
I have ten points of proposal for wiping out our tarnished image and I think the proposals are just as important as the Consultation Document on Review of District Organisations. These are:
1. We should set up an agenda for overall review on how to streamline the
staff establishment and structure of the USD;
Doco 97 of 606
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