Pay commission to be set up
AN independent standing commission will soon be appointed by the Governor to conduct periodic reviews of legislators' pay and to arbitrate in disputes over reimbursements.
The Director of Administration, Richard Hoare, said the commission would be set up in the next month or so and have no more than six members.
The Commission on Remuneration for members of the Legislative Council recommended the setting up of a standing commission to review the remuneration package for legislators every three to five years.
It suggested that the commission excluded legislators or people associated with political parties.
Legco members' claims for reimbursement would be processed by the Legco secretariat. Whenever doubts arose over the interpretation of the expenditure guidelines, the standing commission or the administration would arbitrate.
Professor Wang Gungwu, chairman of the remuneration commission, said Legco members must be accountable for all their claims and their accounts must be transparent and properly documented.
One of the recommendations stipulated that only one-third - not the whole amount, as at present - of the $10,000 entertaining and travelling allowance could be non-accountable.
Legislators would also be required to provide full accounts of who they employed, their salaries and office expenses.
Professor Wang denied that the rules were drawn up because there was something fundamentally wrong with the present system.
But he said from the records the commission had, there were a lot of inconsistencies and differences. The simplest way was to record everything and let everybody know.
'Once it is open, it seems to me people will be very responsible.' Concerns have been raised over how legislators spend taxpayers' money after revelations that appointee Timothy Ha Wing-ho used his allowance to buy an electronic Bible, camera lens and a novel.
Explaining why the commission recommended giving up to $100,000 for directly elected members to set up district offices and not other members, Professor Wang said there was a genuine need for the former to have the money.
