Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ12: Lump Sum Grant Subvention Arrangement
Following is a question by the Hon Fernando Cheung and a written reply by the
Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council
today (June 8):
Question:
On January 1, 2001, the Social Welfare Department (SWD) launched the Lump Sum
Grant Subvention Arrangement (LSGS Arrangement) for providing financial
assistance to non-governmental organisations (NGOs). It also provides tide-over
grants to NGOs to enable them to continue to fulfil their contractual
obligations to existing staff during the five-year transition period. The
Administration also established a Lump Sum Grant Steering Committee to handle
complaints from NGO staff. Recently, I have received many complaints from social
workers against SWD's failure to properly handle complaints from staff whose
remuneration has been cut. Moreover, the Steering Committee has no authority to
order NGOs to send representatives to attend its hearings or rectify acts that
contravene the principles of the LSGS Arrangement. In this connection, will the
Government inform this Council of the following:
(a) since the implementation of the LSGS Arrangement,
(i) the number of complaints the SWD has received concerning NGO staff whose
remuneration has been cut, with a breakdown by contents of the complaints;
(ii) the number of complaints in which the SWD has directly intervened, and the
way the SWD has handled the cases; and
(iii) the number of complaints the SWD has referred to the Steering Committee,
the number of hearings the Steering Committee has held for the referrals, and
the number of cases in which the Steering Committee ruled that the NGOs
concerned had contravened the principles of the LSGS Arrangement; and
(b) the penalties the SWD may impose on NGOs which have contravened the
principles of the LSGS Arrangement, and whether the SWD has assessed the
deterrent effects of such penalties, and whether the SWD will step up the
enforcement of the penalties?
Madam President,
(a) Since the implementation of the Lump Sum Grant (LSG) Subventions System,
(i) the Social Welfare Department (SWD) has received a total of 17 complaints
concerning NGO staff whose remuneration has been cut. A breakdown by content of
the complaints is as follows:
Content of Complaint
No.
1. Salary cut
9
2. Salary frozen
3
3. Other benefits cut
5
(e.g. cut in provident fund or job-related allowance)
Total:
17
(ii) SWD has directly handled and investigated all the 17 complaints. In
investigating each complaint, SWD has approached the complainant(s) to
understand the issues, required the NGOs concerned to submit an incident report,
and informed the complainant the investigation result.
(iii) Among the 17 complaints, SWD has referred six concerning the LSG
subvention rules to the LSG Steering Committee (LSGSC), for which hearing was
conducted for one complaint. Upon the consideration of the LSGSC, three
complaints were concluded as substantiated, whereas two were unsubstantiated.
There is one case still under investigation. Regarding the three substantiated
cases, the NGOs concerned had reinstated the provident fund and job-related
allowances in-question. For the remaining 11 cases, they were concluded as
unsubstantiated after investigation.
Apart from the above 17 complaints, SWD has received another 26 complaints
concerning other human resource management practices, including staff dismissal
and work deployments. At present, two complaints are still under investigation.
After investigation and mediation, it was considered that the remaining cases
had not contravened the LSG requirements. The corresponding complainants have
already been informed of the investigation results.
(b) There are presently standing measures in SWD to handle NGO's violation of
the LSG principles. In accordance with para.4.4(g) of the LSG Manual (2nd
Edition), if a NGO fails to
(i) achieve a reasonable standard of performance in accordance with the Funding
and Service Agreements (FSAs);
(ii) exercise reasonable and prudent financial management; and
(iii) comply with the LSG rules and other subventions rules or obstruct the
Director in the exercise of his/her authorities as given above,
the Director of Social Welfare, having regard to the FSAs, is empowered to
withhold or terminate LSG and other social welfare subventions. SWD considers
that the present measures on monitoring NGOs' management and protecting service
quality have sufficient deterrence effects.
It is worth pointing out that SWD has all along exercised close monitoring on
NGOs' service quality in accordance with respective service-specific FSAs and 16
service quality standards. On the other hand, every NGO is a separate legal
entity, which has its own constitution and is subject to the governance of its
board of directors. Subject to the compliance of the related ordinances, NGOs
enjoy autonomy in recruiting, deploying and promoting their staff. In
formulating the human resource policies and making staff-related decisions, NGOs
should observe the related legal provisions and seek their boards' endorsement.
SWD is not empowered to intervene a staff-related decision if it is not in
contravention with the LSG principles.
With a view to enhancing the governance and accountability of NGOs, SWD has set
out in Chapter 5 of the LSG Manual (2nd Edition) its advice to NGOs on good
human resources management practices. In addition, SWD has, in collaboration
with the Independent Commission Against Corruption, issued two sets of
guidelines, known as "Subvented Social Welfare Non-Governmental Organisations
Staff Administration" and "Sample Code of Conduct for Non-Governmental
Organisations", to NGOs for their reference.
Ends/Wednesday, June 8, 2005
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