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| Feature: HKSAR lawmakers reach consensus on accountability system |
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Weeks of discussion on Hong Kong's imminent adoption of a new administrative system of accountability at the Legislative Council (Legco) seems to have reached a consensus that the old system should be abandoned in favor of the new one.
The Legislative Councilors have also reached a common understanding that the Accountability System for Principal Officials proposed by Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa has unquestionable legal bases in both the Basic Law and other HKSAR laws.
The system, whose details was announced on April 17, has since been intensively discussed at the Legislative Council (Legco) in the past few weeks.
The proposed system aims to appoint non-civil servant principal officials, a total of 14 of them, to head government policy bureau or departments, where each of them will be held responsible for their policy initiatives.
Currently, two constitutional affairs committee meetings are convened each week in the hope of finalizing the legal details in time for the July 1 switchover this year.
A vociferous Legislative Councilor recently spoke in letter to Hong Kong on Radio 3 of Radio Televsion Hong Kong (RTHK), the HKSAR government's radio station, criticising Hong Kong's existing administrative system left behind by the British colonial rule for being "archaic" and needs an "element of accountability" injected into it.
The councilor's view is echoed by Chairman of the Asian Human Rights Commission and Asian Legal Resource Center, Basil Fernando, who delivered a paper recently which compared Hong Kong's administrative system with Sri Lanka's during the colonial rule under the British.
The paper was presented to the 2002 National Convention of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka.
Fernando said Hong Kong started to experience increasing administrative difficulties and a lack of accountability since 1970.
"At that time, the problem of corruption was very serious in the public sector. Offering bribes to the right officials was also necessary for the application of public housing, schooling and other public services.
"Corruption was particularly serious in the police force. Corrupt police officers covered up vice, gambling and drug activities. Social law and order was under threat," he said.
Fernando particularly cited ex-police Commissioner Godber, who fled Hong Kong after making a fortune of about 4 million Hong Kong dollars (512,821 US dollars) -- about four times his lifetime salary.
On the British colonial system's lack of accountability in Hong Kong and Sri Lanka, Fernando remarked, "Thus, creating conditions of accountability and transparency is not merely a matter of preaching but rather the introduction of a comprehensive legal scheme for that purpose."
Another HKSAR Legislative Councilor Raymond Ho, that spoke in letter to Hong Kong, recently said reforms in the present structure of the administration are long overdue.
"The accountability system unveiled by the chief executive is an obvious improvement on the present system. The politically appointed principal officials would take up the political roles in both policy making and lobbying public support.
"They would be accountable to the Chief Executive for the success or failure of matters falling within the portfolios assigned to them by the chief executive," he said.
He added that it is stated in the government briefing paper that the appointed officials will have to accept total responsibility and may have to step down for serious failures relating to their portfolios, and these include serious failures in policy outcome or serious mishaps in policy implementation.
On the question of the proposed system's constitutionality, the HKSAR's Department of Justice has recently issued a series of Legco paper, explaining the proposed system is completely consistent with HKSAR law and the Basic Law.
"There is no requirement in the Basic Law that principal officials must be employed on civil service terms and conditions. The new terms and conditions of appointment for principal officials under the accountability system are consistent with article 48 of the Basic Law," the paper issued by the department on April 25 said.
Legislative Councilor James Tien agreed, saying that Basic Law Article 48 confers on the CE the power to issue executive orders and shape policies, which the proposed system will not compromise.
"The same clause empowers the CE to nominate officials for central government appointment," he said.
Besides, neither articles 103 and 100 of the Basic Law prevent these developments, which are for the good governance of Hong Kong, the paper continued.
Tien remarked, "The Basic Law isn't a fossilized charter but a living covenant with the people who deserve competent governance.
"We would be observing the spirit and letter of the Basic Law by approving the accountability system and also by exercising the power it gives us to watch what ministers and the chief executive do and make them all answerable to the public," Tien said.
Editor: Inner Wu
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