The Basic Law says the Executive Council is an organ for assisting the chief executive in policy-making. Combining principal officials and non-official elites, the chief executive in council makes decisions on policies and a wide range of community issues.
Politically, Exco functions like a cabinet, comprising ministers with policy portfolios and non-official members representing the interests of important sectors. It may sound straightforward, yet the role and functioning of Exco have become a subject of much debate.
Last week, an anonymous non-official member of Exco complained that the non-official members were being sidelined in the deliberation of policies. He said they often received the papers submitted for Exco discussion and approval on a Monday, only one day before the regular Tuesday meeting.
By that point in the policy-making process it was too late for them to give their input, the member said.
The substance and tone of the member's remarks gave credence to a major finding contained in a Legislative Council subcommittee report on the West Kowloon cultural district development. It cited legislators who accused the government of bypassing Exco in planning for the huge project.
Although the West Kowloon project has been discussed at three Exco meetings since 1999, insiders said the government provided only scanty information about it to non-official members. Despite strong reservations in Exco over the single-developer approach and the design of the giant canopy, the steering committee - headed by then chief secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen - pressed ahead with the original proposals.
The anonymous Exco member said non-official members should be invited to sit on the Policy Committee, a top policy body comprising all principal officials involved in the co-ordination, discussion and prioritisation of policies. Non-official members could then give input at an earlier stage of policy formulation.
