Poor turnout for committee
MEMBERS of the Housing Authority's building committee had the lowest attendance rate at meetings last year.
The committee, which decides on tenders, building programmes and designs of flats, met 11 times in the year to March 31. The average attendance was 60.2 per cent.
Building committee chairman Edward Ho Sing-tin failed to reply to inquiries by the South China Morning Post last week.
The highest attendances - 81.6 per cent - were at the seven full authority meetings.
This compares with an average 90 per cent attendance by members of the Legislative Council at the 135 weekly sessions over the past four years.
More up-to-date figures were not available, the authority said.
Records show the Home Ownership Committee, which fixes the sale prices of public flats, had the second lowest attendance at 68.8 per cent.
It is understood this was partly because Leung Chun-ying, a Preliminary Working Committee member, spent a lot of time in Beijing.
The attendance rate at other sub-committees was almost 80 per cent. The authority has six key sub-committees to cover finance, building projects, tendering, estate management and public housing policies.
Members' participation in a sub-committee is voluntary while independent professionals and government officials are also invited to give views as co-opted members.
An authority spokesman said absent members could submit views in writing.
But Lo Chau, of the Hong Kong People's Council on Public Housing Policy, said: 'If all members write their opinions to the committee, what is the point of having the authority at all? Why not they ask all members to write in their views?'
