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Financial review offered ahead of vote on arts hub

The government has offered an olive branch to lawmakers before they vote on the HK$21.6 billion budget for the West Kowloon arts hub on Friday, promising an interim financial review in 2014.

The Home Affairs Bureau would also require the arts hub authority to hold at least one public meeting each year to gauge public opinion on the development.

Still, these extra promises failed to move some lawmakers, who worried the arts hub will not be self-sufficient.

Deputy Secretary for Home Affairs Esther Leung Yuet-yin said at a media briefing yesterday that the government would require the future arts hub authority to conduct an interim financial review after completing phase one in 2014 or 2015.

The subjects to be discussed would include the progress of construction, an audited financial analysis, operational incomes and expenses, and plans for phase two.

But she said the review should not affect development of the second phase and the requirement for the interim review would not be included in the draft bill for the arts hub authority to be voted on tomorrow.

'We will declare the new requirement in the Finance Committee this Friday,' she said. 'It is not necessary to state it in the law.'

Ms Leung said including the review in the law would impose limits on the timing for the review and raise the risk of possible legal battles.

In response to demands that the authority be held more accountable for its performance, the bureau said it would hold public meetings.

'The bill will not specify the frequency of the meetings, but they should be held at least once a year,' Ms Leung said.

She said suggestions raised by lawmakers last month, one of which would have required the authority to report on its finances every six months, were not all practical or effective.

But some legislators were not satisfied with that argument.

'We just wanted to be alerted at an early stage if there were a substantial gap between the government estimates and the sum spent [by the authority],' Civic Party lawmaker Alan Leong Kah-kit, who chairs the Legco subcommittee on the development, said yesterday.

He said the government's estimate of 2 per cent inflation for building costs was 'totally ridiculous', and warned the administration risked underestimating the hub's cost.

'The financial information provided in a standard annual report does not tell us much,' he said.

The final report on the arts hub released by the Legislative Council last month urged the government to provide periodic reports on construction estimates, business plans for arts facilities and shops, audited statements of accounts, and an account of the delivery of, or delays in, facilities.

'We are very disappointed,' Mr Leong said. 'We are seriously considering voting against the approval of the HK$21.6 billion in the Financial Committee.'

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