'Unelected body' stirs cash row

An additional $15.5 million for honorariums and allowances to the newly appointed provisional district board members was approved by the provisional legislature yesterday.

This was despite criticism that the funding was unnecessary because the 468 appointed members were not democratically elected.

At a Finance Committee meeting, independent Andrew Wong Wang-fat said: 'They don't have voters in districts and they don't even need to be responsible to them. Why do we have to spend so much money to rent offices for these appointed members? We only need to give each of them a desk.' But Principal Assistant Secretary for Home Affairs Parrish Ng Ching-man said appointed members should not be discriminated against.